Falling short against U.S. a heartbreaker for Canada
Avenging Americans’ gold medal victory tough to take for women’s hockey team
As an elite athlete, if you don’t learn from it, you’re not going to get better from it. We slowly got over Sochi and learned from it and I think it showed.
Eventually the tears will dry and chins will be raised. Eventually Canadian defenceman Jocelyne Larocque might even look at the silver medal awarded to her before she promptly removed it from around her neck.
The pain, however, may never completely leave.
In yet another stunning showcase for women’s hockey and a terrific chapter in one of the greatest rivalries in sport, Canada fell 3-2 in a shootout to the U.S., ending its 16year run as Olympic champions.
The record will show that it was Canada’s 22nd medal of these Pyeongchang Games but one that, in the immediate aftermath anyway, was weighted more in disappointment than accomplishment.
“It’s hard because honestly, the immediate effect right after a game is you are disappointed and you feel like you’ve let a country down,” Canadian coach Laura Schuler said. “Whenever you commit the way that our girls commit to excellence and you just fall short and just get so close … it was a natural emotion to have.
“Hopefully, one day they’ll be able to be proud of their efforts and know they gave everything they had.”
Unfortunately, so did the Americans, who ended four years of suffering through the aftermath of an overtime loss at the Sochi Games. The win also halted their 20-year drought between Olympic golds and snapped a 24-game Canadian winning streak at the Games.
In what was a terrific afternoon of tension and of end-to-end, beston-best hockey, the advance billing didn’t disappoint.
It was so good that it left you wanting — wanting for more real hockey and for the game not to be decided by a shootout. And certainly not to have a four-year wait between such epic showdowns.
It was a game so close that even the penalty-shot competition needed extra time, with each team scoring twice in the five regulation tries. But when Jocelyne Lamoureux beat goaltender Shannon Szabados of Edmonton in Round 6 and Ruthven, Ont.’s Meghan Agosta, was denied — it finally ended.
Yes, someone had to lose and this time it was the Canadians.
“When you don’t hear your anthem on that blue-line, it’s a feeling you’re never going to forget,” said forward Natalie Spooner of Scarborough, Ont. “It’s not a good feeling at all. You work for four years for this and you dream about it every day and when it doesn’t come true, it’s a tough pill to swallow.”
In a game with such gigantic stakes and tremendous swings in play and emotion, it’s impossible not to replay the what-ifs. For Spooner, she’d love to have her failed shootout attempt back. For the botched line change in the third period that led to Monique Lamoureux’s tying goal, the game tape may be hard to digest.
In the immediate aftermath, the Canadians were felled by an incredibly potent mix of disappointment and frustration. Determining a gold medal via shooting is embarrassing for the sport, something even the Americans would concede.
The hockey itself had many breathtaking moments. Both teams were relentless to the end, particularly in the third period and overtime when the hockey was so desperate it was dizzying. But give the Americans credit: Their speed and determination never wavered and in a game where there was so little to separate the two combatants, they earned the win.
Though they professed to have put the devastation of Sochi behind them, the Americans acknowledge post-game that they learned from it. The heartache that was so fresh for the Canadians had lingered the better part of four years.
“As an elite athlete, if you don’t learn from it, you’re not going to get better from it,” said American forward Kendall Coyne. “We slowly got over Sochi and learned from it and I think it showed.
“We prepared the last four years to expect a game like that and we were ready this time.”
Both teams were, really. A rash of first-period Canadian penalties came at a cost when Hilary Knight deflected a puck in front of Szabados with just 25 seconds remaining.
The Canadians came out flying in the second and were rewarded just two minutes in when Thunder Bay, Ont.’s Haley Irwin nimbly deflected a pass from Blayre Turnbull of Stellarton, N.S., past American goaltender Maddie Rooney. Then captain Marie-Philip Poulin of Beauceville, Que., gave Canada it’s only lead of the game when she quick-released a beautiful Agosta pass into the top corner.
“I don’t know if it ever goes away,” Schuler said of the pain she felt as a player in the only other Olympic defeat for Canada in 1998. “When you put your heart and soul on the line for something and you fall short, you try to learn from those experiences and grow from it.”