Five Minnesota women's hockey players have been invited to USA Hockey's Women's National Festival, set for Aug. 2-9 at the Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, N.Y. Fanale, Hemp, Jordan, Kaiser and Lindsay are among 46 college players called in for the camp, which runs alongside a parallel festival for the Under-18 national team.
The festival is the sport's biggest annual gathering of American talent outside a world championship or Olympic year, and it's how USA Hockey builds its evaluation pool. This year that pool feeds directly into two rosters: a 25-player U.S. Collegiate Women's Select Team and a 25-player U.S. Under-18 Select Team, both to be named once camp wraps. Those squads then head to Richmond, B.C., for a three-game series against Canada Aug. 12-15.
Fanale enters the festival off one of the best freshman seasons in the WCHA, scoring 20 goals and earning a spot on the conference's All-Rookie Team while finishing as a top-three finalist for WCHA Rookie of the Year. Lindsay put up a career-high 27 points last season and projects as a top-six forward again this fall. Hemp, a freshman goaltender from Chanhassen, went 239 saves in 13 appearances with a 2.14 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage in her first year backstopping the Gophers.
Jordan joined the program as a junior defenseman after transferring from Boston College, while Kaiser is working her way back after a season cut short by shoulder surgery that limited her to 10 games. Getting an invite to Lake Placid is a real vote of confidence for both as they push for bigger roles this season.
This isn't new territory for the Minnesota program. A dozen Gophers were tabbed for the same festival a year ago, and five players with Gopher ties made the U.S. Olympic team that won gold at the 2026 Winter Games in February — a pipeline the coaching staff has leaned on for years to keep the roster stocked with players who've been through the highest levels of international hockey.