I never would have thought I would be writing a blog about women's hockey. But here I am. Thursday, the United States and Canada met in the gold medal game at the Sochi Olympics, to the surprise of not many, I'm sure.
For the fourth consecutive Olympics, the Canadian women won the gold, with a 3-2 overtime victory over the USA women. The hardware didn't come without some late-game heroics and nail-biting excitement, however.
Since I was at the office while it seemed the rest of the continent was watching the game, I followed along via Twitter. You pretty much know exactly what's going on if you follow enough of the right people.
Comfortable lead? Not exactly
The teams were scoreless through the first period. Team USA took a 1-0 lead in the second, and then a 2-0 lead in the third. I watched a replay of the game later and saw USA kick back slightly with that two-goal cushion. Just as I thought that, TV analyst Pierre McGuire commented, "Don't sit back," with 12 minutes left in regulation, adding that you don't want to be in the habit of just defending.
It's the old, trying-not-to-lose way of finishing out a game, rather than trying to win. That bug hit USA.
The game was a good one, to be sure. The players skated hard and it was actually a pretty physical game. I was pleasantly surprised. I haven't made it a secret that I hold boys/men's hockey to a better standard than girls/women. It's just not the same level to me. However, Thursday's game showed me the level was pretty close to even, at least for that contest.
The final 3:26 changed the tide
Canada struck with 3:26 left in regulation. Though it may be stating the obvious, a 2-1 game is much different than 2-0. That insurance goal is huge. It only took that one goal to give Canada a chance to grab hold of the momentum. It pulled the goalie with 1:35 left.
One of the daggers for USA came 13 seconds later. From their own blue line, they shot the puck toward the empty net. It hit the pipe. That goal would have likely put the gold medals around the necks of the USA players.
In the final minute scramble, Canada made it a tie game with 54 ticks left. Just 54 seconds separated USA from striking gold.
By the way, there are so many references to the "Mighty Ducks" movies I could throw out here that correlate to this game. A few of them showed up on Twitter.
All of a sudden, here's overtime
Overtime got interesting. USA must have regrouped well enough during the intermission, because it had a few good scoring chances early. Canada took a penalty, giving USA a short-lived power play. That's because six seconds later, the refs called an absolute textbook "even-up" penalty on USA. "Even-up" is commonly referred to by hockey fans when one team is on the power play, and then that team gets penalized, to even the number of skaters again. Usually, the validity of these calls is questionable.
The player barely lifted her stick to poke at the puck in the Canadian goalie's pads, a play that is pretty typical and has been done much more aggressively. I guess that was deemed a slash.
Anyway, a minute later, USA went to the box again, for a crosscheck which arguably could have been a penalty shot in Canada's favor. It was that 5-on-3 advantage, where Canada was set up in the offensive zone, that it scored the golden goal with 11:50 left in the extra session.
Joy for our neighbors to the north, disappointment for us.
I must say, I loved how so many people were hockey fans Thursday and throughout the Olympics. I just wish we could get more fans of the game all the time. Not just every four years.
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