from Andrew Podnieks of IIHF.com,
After 80 minutes of end-to-end action, the women's Olympic gold medal was decided by a shootout. And even that went to overtime before the U.S. won, 3-2.
In fact, the shootout mirrored the game exactly. The U.S. led 1-0, trailed 2-1, and fought back to win both, 3-2. The U.S. goalie, 20-year-old Maddie Rooney, outduelled Canada's two-time Olympic gold medallist Shannon Szbados to secure the win.
Lamoureux's winning shootout shot was, as they say, sick. Moving in slwoly, she made a couple of left-to-right dekes that had Szabados on her back.
"I was told after the fourth shooter that I was going to be the sixth one if it came to that," Lamoureux explained. "Coach Stauber asked if I wanted it and I said, ‘Absolutely.’ I came in on a few inside edges, coming in slow. I knew that was what I was going to do. Szabados is a great goalie. She’s an amazing goalie. I knew I had to sell the shot, and I did."
"I can’t think about anything except pure pride, excitement, and honour for our team," said winning captain Meghan Duggan. "A lot of us have wanted this since we saw the 1998 team win 20 years ago. To have this experience together, to represent our country is the greatest honour in the world. It’s one of the greatest days of all of our lives."
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from Bruce Athur of the Toronto Star,
There are only two outcomes if you play in this game: joy, or devastation. That’s every championship, every final, every gold-medal showdown. But when it’s Canada and the United States for gold in women’s hockey, it’s different. They play elsewhere, but there is only really this. This is it....
Every four years this game prompts a debate over the sport itself, over the minnows in the rest of the world. Canada has 86,925 women’s players, according to the 2017 International Ice Hockey Federation survey; the U.S. has 75,832. The other teams in this tournament — Finland, Sweden, Russia, the Koreas, Switzerland and Japan — combine for 10,593. So they loom over the sport like twin gods.
“It’s definitely a lot of pressure, but it’s exciting at the same time for women’s hockey, and girls in sports,” said Spooner. “Hopefully there’s a lot of girls watching and dreaming of being in this spot, because I remember watching and dreaming of being here.”...
These teams give us this game, this crucible, where they find out what they really have. Before the game American Amanda Kessel said of 2014, “We can’t go back and play that game again,” any more than they could replay any of the others. Of course not. They can never go back. They can only surge forward, accelerating to crescendos that make you forget that there’s anybody else at all.
It was a shame, the shootout. Because in a way it didn’t matter who had to cry their hearts out, or who would see this game in their dreams for the rest of their lives. This is what they play for, and they should have allowed to finish it at full bore. But it was finished, and that was what they had been waiting for, and will wait for again.
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GANGNEUNG, South Korea — Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson (Grand Forks, N.D.) scored the game-winner in the sixth round of the shootout and Maddie Rooney (Andover, Minn.) stopped 29 shots and four of Canada's six shootout attempts as the U.S. Olympic Women's Ice Hockey Team defeated Canada in a shootout, 3-2, to win the gold medal at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.
“For our players, I am so happy they get to experience something different,” said Robb Stauber, head coach of the 2018 U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team. “We had some trying times this year. You learn how to transform yourself, how you think about and perform the game. This is probably a classic example of how hard it should be to win a gold medal.”
The victory gives the United States its second gold medal in women’s ice hockey after Team USA claimed the inaugural gold medal in the event at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. The U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team has medaled in all six Olympic appearances to date (gold – 1998, 2018; silver – 2002, 2010, 2014 and bronze – 2006).
For the complete game recap, click here.
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