1 player, 2 goals, 6 seconds: U.S. women thump Russia
GANGNEUNG, South Korea — Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson can’t remember ever scoring twice on the same shift.
The three-time Olympian looking for her first gold medal is just happy to give the Americans a bit of a boost. She did it in Olympic record fashion.
Lamoureux-Davidson had the fastest back-to-back goals in Olympic history, scoring 6 seconds apart in the second period Tuesday night as the U.S. women shut out the Olympic Athletes from Russia 5-0.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever come close to that again,” Lamoureux-Davidson said. “But we’ll see.”
Lamoureux-Davidson not only topped Canada’s Caroline Oullette, who scored twice in 16 seconds in a 16-0 rout of Italy at the 2006 Turin Games, but also the men’s mark of 8 seconds by Carl Goran Oberg of Sweden in 1960 at Squaw Valley.
Lamoureux-Davidson tapped in the rebound of a shot from her twin sister, Monique Lamoureux-Morando, at 11:46 of the second period. Off the ensuing faceoff, the puck wound up in the skates of two Russian players, and Lamoureux-Davidson poked it away to give herself a breakaway. She dipped her right shoulder and feigned a forehand shot before scoring on a backhand.
With the win, the Americans remained undefeated going into their early Olympic showdown Thursday against Canada, which is also 2-0.
The Americans have won eight of the last 10 world championships, including an overtime win over Canada last spring for their fourth straight title. But they are trying to end a 20-year Olympic goldmedal drought. The last time these teams met in the Olympics, Canada rallied from a 2-0 deficit to win its fourth straight gold in overtime in 2014 in Sochi.
No medal will be on the line Thursday, just positioning for the semifinals. That made tuning up the offense a must for the U.S. with Canada routing its first two opponents.
“I have no doubt we’re ready,” goalie Nicole Hensley said.
Hensley, who started the U.S. win over Canada in the 2017 world championship, made 13 saves in her Olympic debut.
The Americans defused a pregame controversy in which the International Olympic Committee had asked the Statue of Liberty logo be removed from the masks of Hensley and teammate Alex Rigsby.
USA Hockey discussed the matter with the IOC, and the masks were approved with no modifications required, according to USA Today.
The IOC had said no item worn or used by a team could feature “the wording or lyrics from national anthems, motivational words, public/political messaging or slogans related to national identity.”
Hensley wore her Statue of Liberty mask in Tuesday’s victory.