During the Beijing Olympics, the unbridled courage of the Canadian women’s hockey team became apparent – a source of admiration, anger, and fear.
There were insults to the teams going to the bronze medal, serious dangers from opponents and cautious criticism of the tactics that failed to score from Ann-Rene Despianes.And The guard who turned the Canadian arch into a fort.
The Canadians proved everything right on Thursday, beating the United States 3-2 in the gold medal match and reclaiming the Olympic title that the Americans won four years ago.
United States
Canada’s victory was a show of well-armed game with some dose of luck and the fury and anger that led to the 2018 Olympic defeat.
The result was one that Canadians tended to predict. To them, the gold medal seemed less rewarding and more than just making relentless demands.
“We played very well – we can not stop if we play our way – do not focus on other teams or focus on who we are playing with,” said Natalie Spooner, striker for her third Canadian Olympic team.
It looked like Canada had scored in about seven minutes in Thursday’s game when American goalkeeper Alex Gavalini saved the ball from one side and saw Spooner wipe it out with a powerful shot. However, the United States denied that Canada was an invader, an estimate supported by the authorities.
“I owe you,” Spooner said as she sat up in bed, co-worker Sarah Norse told her. “I’m an intruder.”
Thirty-five seconds later, the goal came: after Canada won the showdown, the nurse took the pass and rolled and scored.
Canada doubled their lead with a shot from Canadian captain Mary Philip Paul, who played in Canada’s fourth game, and Paulin scored again in the middle of the second half to make it 3-0.
Hillary Knight, who scored a short-term goal for the United States in the second half, promised that the Americans would avoid any humiliation of disqualification when it came to the gold medal.
The goal of playing the force 13 seconds before the game was nearing the final end. This time, the Canadian team realized that their victory was assured.
The same is true of Americans.
“We wanted to get a lot of bucks out there, we already have a lot of bodies, and I don’t think we did it well,” said U.S. pioneer Abby Rock.
Thursday’s, the sixth gold medal match between Canada and the United States since women’s hockey became an Olympic sport in 1998, was a familiar venue. The United States claimed their first Olympic title, but won a game that ended in a penalty until 2018. At least in Canada, it was seen as a disorder without a precursor to a change of power.
Several meetings until Thursday’s game suggested the same thing. The Canadians won the preliminary round match 4-2 in Beijing, 4-2 in the pre-Olympic Games series in North America.
Teams were undeniable legends of gaming. She entered Canada on Thursday, scoring 54 goals, an Olympic record, and had three women in the top five in Beijing: Brian Jenner, Sarah Filler and Jamie Lee Rodrguez.
The United States recorded two wins in the final and beat bronze medalist Finland twice on Wednesday evening.
Led by captain and one of the world’s fastest skaters, Kendall Quinn Schofield set a record for most women’s hockey games at the Olympics on Thursday, when the United States was hit by a deadly attack. The guards were forced. Brave to face the storm of shots during the match.
But the Americans struggled again Thursday to turn chances into goals. At the same time, they found the Canadian team to be enthusiastic and quick to score. In the first period, Canada met the United States in the shootout against 11 runs, with a significant turnaround from their last encounter, with the Americans making 16 attempts for the first time and the Canadians winning by only five.
Canada |
3 | 21 | 0 to 2 | 6 | |
United States |
2 | 40 | 1 vs. 3 | 4 |
The U.S. eventually caught up with Canada again with shots, with the Canadian referee insisting that after their first meeting the Americans were very happy to knock down opponents with a barrage of shots that were not always good.
However, in most games this was a tactic. But as time went on on Thursday, it became clear which team had shown the best of themselves as the Americans swept their nets for more than three minutes to go to the final recording of kicks and hits.
Canada has long promised that this will happen.