ORLANDO, Fla. – As the final horn sounded last Thursday night at Canada Hockey Place in Vancouver, there were tears aplenty on the ice and in the stands. Tears of joy. Tears of disappointment. Tears of relief. Even a few tears of gratitude. The final scoreboard read Canada 2, USA 0 in the gold medal game at the 2010 Winter Olympics, giving the host Canadians their third consecutive gold in women’s ice hockey. The contest between the world’s two premiere women’s programs lived up to the anticipation in many ways as the North American neighbors continued their heated rivalry. It also ended a tournament that in many ways left observers wondering just how much the international competitive gap has changed and how long the women’s game will remain a part of the Olympics. As the eight-team tournament kicked off, much of the discussion was about whether Team USA and Team Canada could stay focused enough to get to the final game. Since the International Olympic Committee added women’s ice hockey to the Winter Games in 1998, Canada and the United States had met for the gold in two of the three tourneys. In 2006, the U.S. squad was upset by Sweden, breaking the string of North American dominance. From the beginning, the IOC was concerned about the level of play beyond the “big two”. Canada didn’t make any argument for parity by opening up with a record-setting 18-0 win over Slovakia. Yes I said 18-0. Meghan Agosta had a hat trick by midway through the second period. The Canadians even scored two short-handed goals on the same penalty kill. Slovakia had a mere nine shots on Canadian goalie Kim St. Pierre. One day later, the U.S. team bombed China 12-1 as Jenny Potter had a hat trick of her own two minutes into the second period. The highlight of the game may have been Jocelyne Lamoureux’s between-the-legs to get past the defenseman and score that would have made many of the NHL’s best playing in the men’s tournament jealous. U.S. head coach Mark Johnson, a member of the 1980 USA “Miracle On Ice” gold medal team at Lake Placid, pulled back on the onslaught but by then, the rumblings had already begun. “I get uncomfortable when the score gets too lopsided,” Johnson said. Looking at the historical perspective, the men’s tournament has seen its share of lopsided scores too. During the very first tourney in 1920, the U.S. team demolished Switzerland 29-0 (Canada’s team beat Czechoslovakia 15-0 on the way to the gold that year). Four years later, Canada went on an incredible run in the preliminary round, defeating the Czechs 30-0 and following it with a 22-0 win over Sweden and a 33-0 blanking of the Swiss. For the record, the largest margin of victory for the U.S. men was a 31-1 thumping of Italy in 1948. The talk grew louder when Canada proceeded to blow out Switzerland 10-1 and Sweden 13-1 to finish the prelim round 3-0. They out-shot the Swiss 62-12 and Agosta added two more goals to her game one total. The Swedes offered little more resistance, allowing 52 Canadian shots on net, including 43 in the first two periods to their own four. Agosta popped yet another hat trick and Hayley Wickenheiser, considered the face of Canadian women’s hockey for several years, had a five point game which included her 16th career Olympic goal. The Canadians finished the preliminary round having outscored their opponents 41-2 and out shooting them by a staggering 181-34. Johnson’s U.S. team was just as impressive despite the appearance of pulling back after rocketing out to big leads. They routed the Russians 13-0 and finished the preliminary round with a 6-0 blanking of Finland. Against Russia, Potter set an Olympic record with her second consecutive game with a hat trick and Natalie Darwitz added a five point effort as ten different players scored goals. The Americans led 12-0 after two periods and took just two shots at the Russian net in the third. Against the Fins, six players lit the goal light including Darwitz, Molly Engstrom and Hilary Knight. The score came as a bit of a surprise as the Fins had given the U.S. everything it could handle in the Hockey Canada Cup tournament last August, beating the Americans 3-2. The top two teams aside, the other six teams has some pretty competitive games. Sweden and Finland were the best of the rest, each going 2-1 in pool play. The Chinese team was highly competitive, losing to Finland and Russia by identical 2-1 scores. Despite going 0-3, Slovakia hung tough against Sweden and Switzerland. In the end, the Swiss finished fifth by defeating Russia 2-1 while China took seventh with a 3-1 victory over Slovakia in the qualification round. Back on the medal side, the semifinals pitted the U.S. against Sweden while the Canadians battled Finland. Four years ago, the Swedes had spoiled the anticipated U.S.-Canada gold medal match-up by taking down the Americans in a shootout that featured goalie Kim Martin shutting down the Red White and Blue offensive juggernaut. Like they had in Turin, the U.S. jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Monique Lamoureux and Meghan Duggan. Then three minutes into the second period, Angela Ruggiero, the American equivalent to Canada’s Wickenheiser, broke in and beat Martin. When Caitlin Cahow scored two and a half minutes later, the rout was on. Lamoureux completed a hat trick in the third period as the U.S. avenged the loss in Turin with a 9-1 victory. The Canada-Finland was more nerve-racking for Canada coach Melody Davidson than most had thought it would be. Goals by Cherie Piper and Haley Irwin staked the home team to a 2-0 lead after one, a lead that could have easily been more were it not for Finland’s Noora Raty who was incredible in net for the Fins. It took until late in the second period when Agosta scored her record-setting ninth tournament goal. Two third period goals including Irwin’s second of the game provided the Canadians with a 5-0 win and yet another meeting with the United States. Canada Hockey Place was rocking as the gold medal game began. Shannon Szabados, the net minder for Canada, knew she would be tested just as her counterpart Jessie Vetter knew that she would face her stiffest test of the tournament. Vetter would be the one to blink first as Marie-Philip Poulin, the 18-year old who many in Canada consider to be the Sidney Crosby of the women’s program, picked up a pass from teammate Jennifer Botterill and cleanly beat the American goalie with a wrist shot to the top corner late in the stanza. 2:55 later, Poulin was at it again, ripping a shot home off of a face-off to put Canada up by two. From that point, it was up to Szabados, who found out just before the game that she would be the starting goalie in the biggest game the Canadian women had ever played, to close the door. The intensity of the game was tremendous throughout as the Americans fought valiantly to get back into the contest. Some of the individual battles, like the one between Ruggiero and Canada’s Gillian Apps (granddaughter of Hall Of Fame member Syl Apps and daughter of Syl Apps, Jr.), rivaled those seen in NHL rinks every winter. Every time the U.S. looked like it might be able to score, Szabados was able to put herself between the puck and the net, denying chance after chance. Vetter recovered to play a flawless final two periods but the damage had been done. By game’s end, the pressure on the Canadian women to bring home the gold medal in “their game in their country” had become a joyous exhale of relief. Memories of a loss to the U.S. in the Canada Cup in September on the same ice surface were replaced by the excitement of the completion of the mission. On the other side of the ice, the Americans could only watch and think about what might have been, coming up one win short of their ultimate goal. In the end, it was a game that showed how far the women’s game has come. Unfortunately, what many people may remember may be the news that came the morning after. Somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes after the medal ceremony, the Canadian team was still celebrating in what was now an empty arena. The party spilled out onto the ice, complete with alcoholic beverages, cigars, zamboni rides and camera phones. One photo appeared to show Poulin, the 18-year old, with a beer in her hand (the legal drinking age in British Columbia is 19). When informed of the celebration by the Associated Press (and shown the pictures), the IOC immediately stated that the celebration “was not something we wanted to see” and launched an investigation. Hockey Canada issued a quick apology but with the “properness” of the IOC, who knows whether that apology was heard. The celebration aside, the ending of play on the ice was a perfect cap to two weeks of hockey. It was a display fitting for an international stage. Whether that stage continues beyond Sochi, Russia in 2014 is in the hands of the IOC and the countries of the world not named Canada and the United States. For the sake of the game, let’s hope that women’s hockey beyond North America can find its way out of the woods and into the light because the darkness left behind if the game goes away would be frightening. Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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