Brian Snyder / Reuters Team Canada players react after losing the women’s hockey gold medal game against the U.S.at the Winter Olympics in South Korea on February 22, 2018. It was a game for the ages as the US came back from a late 2-1 deficit in the third to force overtime.
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The most thrilling of them all came in Team USA hockey’s 3-2 shootout win over archrival Canada for the gold, its first since winning it all in the sport’s inaugural Olympics in 1998. Monique Lamoreux-Davidson beat Szabados, sliding the puck under her glove, for the Americans’ deciding shootout goal, and then American goaltender Maddie Rooney stopped Meghan Agosta to seal the victory.
“I was just so happy I could help in any way possible, I’ve pictured and visualized moments like that thousands of times and just to get the nod and the coach threw me out there, there was no doubt it was gonna go our way”, said Jocelyne Lamoureux, Team USA Hockey.
They drew support from players’ associations for the NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB and the National Hockey League, and finally, in March 2017, reached an agreement for parity with the men’s team, though the exact details have not been released. “It is just so competitive at this time that you know it’s not really shocking that they’re improving”.
That was the case for New Zealand, as Zoi Sadowski-Synnott claimed women’s big air bronze before Nico Porteous won bronze in the men’s ski halfpipe. Switzerland, led by skip Peter de Cruz, lost to Sweden 9-3, while Canada, led by skip Kevin Koe, was upset by Team USA 5-3.
And they gave us the signature moment of the Winter Olympics. Much like in the semifinal against the US when Koe blanked two straight ends but saw Team USA steal two points in the eighth, the strategy again failed.
“We just told the skip (Shuster) that we had a lot of faith in him, and he knows that when we say that, we really believe it”.
American forward Hilary Knight opened the scoring in the dying seconds of the first period, redirecting a shot by Sidney Morin past Canadian goaltender Shannon Szabados.
1994 – Canada’s hate of the shootout began in the gold-medal game of the Lillehammer Olympics courtesy of Hall of Famer Peter Forsberg.
The first time U.S. and Canada played each other during the 2018 Winter Olympics, Canada won 2-1.
The Canadians said they didn’t like the shootout format, preferring overtime to settle a game of such magnitude.
The greatest thing about the game – and the USA win – was that it was the purest form of hockey: a battle fueled by raw competitiveness, passion, and love for the game. It was a great game, and both teams put forward a gold-medal effort and demonstrated what incredible competition the women’s game is on an worldwide scale. “We were going for gold”. I think they are in the zone and are going to go after it. “You feel like you have it all under control, but being a spectator, it was hard to watch”.
Athletes can be forgiven for their emotions in the heat of competition, but one Winter Olympic athlete’s reaction to coming in second is rubbing people the wrong way.
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The men’s curling tournament will conclude Saturday morning when Sweden takes on Team USA in the gold medal game at 1:35 a.m. EST.
