Former Mercyhurst University women’s hockey player Kelley Steadman has joined 78 other players from across the nation at the 2012 USA Hockey Women’s National Festival at Schwan Super Rink in Blaine, Minn.
The event concludes with a three-game series Thursday through Sunday against Team Canada. Steadman, a native of Plattsburgh, N.Y., continues to vie for a spot on the U.S. Women’s National Team since ending her Lakers career with a four-year total of 78 goals and 132 points. Twenty-one of 23 members of the U.S. team that won silver at the last IIHF Women’s World Championship are at the event, including past U.S. Olympians Julie Chu, Molly Engstrom and Jenny Potter.

Vicki Bendus and Jesse Scanzano return to Mercyhurst Ice Center tonight. But unlike the past four years, when they starred for the Mercyhurst College women’s hockey team, they will play against the Lakers.

Bendus and Scanzano will headline the Canadian Women’s Hockey League’s Brampton Thunder in a 7 p.m. exhibition game against the No. 8 Lakers. Bendus, the 2010 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award winner as national college player of the year, was drafted fourth overall in the last CWHL draft.

Scanzano, the fifth overall selection by Toronto, will play for Brampton for this game. Bendus and Scanzano completed their college careers a season ago as two of the players in program history.

The Thunder also has former Mercyhurst players Natalie Payne (2005-08) and Ashley Pendleton (2003-07) and past United States Olympian Molly Engstrom on the roster.