Canadian women take silver in Olympic hockey

“We had a lot of shots on net and a lot of opportunities, some loose pucks on the net in scrums, a few inches off in a lot of them, so we’ve just got to find a way to get those goals”, she said.

The Canadians, who had pushed the Americans around for much of the game and taken penalties for it, wept on the ice as they accepted their silver medals.

The U.S. went into the gold medal rematch hoping to avenge its heartbreaking 3-2 loss in overtime to Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and was able to do just that. “Knight’s goal was a pretty tip, but you’ve got to get ugly goals in games and you have to get pretty goals, deflections and power-play goals”, Stauber said. Duggan said she was really happy Savolainen got up and that any decision about a potential suspension was out of her control. “But it’s in the past now”. That meant a nail biting 20 minute 4 on 4 wound down scoreless and the game ended up in a shootout with 5 shots by different shooters.

This was the eighth time these North American rivals had met in the Olympics and the fifth with gold on the line. Would the US finally snap Canada’s golden streak, or would the Canadians win their fifth consecutive gold medal? But the United States lost to Sweden in 2006 and took home bronze from Turin.

That pain will now be Canada’s after the USA exorcised their demons with a 3-2 shootout win over their northern neighbours in Pyeongchang on Thursday, in a breathless showdown that confirmed the rivalry as one of the Olympics’ greatest.

It was sweet redemption for the 10 Americans who watched the Canadians snatch gold away in Sochi.

The anguish written on the faces expressed something a generation of Canadian hockey players had never felt before – the agony of defeat. “Instead we couldn’t even score”. Our plan coming in was to repeat the good habits that we talked about earlier in the tournament.

The U.S. actually has won seven of the previous eight world championship tournaments, beating Canada in the finals on each occasion. It was a hard-fought game full of rookies, as 13 of the USA players had never seen Olympic play, although that didn’t stop them from playing their way to the top of the podium.

“It is going to be part of our legacy”, said Knight, a three-time Olympian and US team captain. No need to waste energy dwelling on such a heartbreaker when the chance at history is at hand.

They won their first gold medal since 1998, the first time women’s hockey was an Olympic sport.

“It is everything for our country”, USA coach Robb Stauber said.

The game was into OT as they are deadlocked at 2-2. Puck drop is scheduled for 8:10 p.m. “You have two great opponents at the end”, Canadian head coach Laura Schuler explained. And she said she knows what it’s like to feel you’ve let an entire country down. Another man in his 60s from the outskirts of the capital said the team had little time to practice together, and will do better next time. “I can’t tell you how happy I am for our players”.