Win over Canada for gold ends 20-year U.S. drought

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — Listening to the national anthem after they had defeated Canada in a six-round shootout to earn Olympic gold, members of the U.S. women’s hockey team stood with their arms around each other and swayed gently to the sweetest song they’d ever heard.

They were together, of one mind and one heart, smiling and crying, after their 3-2 victory Thursday had ended Canada’s four-tournament winning streak and halted a 20-year U.S. gold-medal famine.

“It’s the greatest moment of our lives,” said forward Meghan Duggan, who added gold to the silver medals she won after close losses to Canada in 2010 and 2014. “We worked really hard to put ourselves in position to win this thing.”

They reached the pinnacle of the hockey world after Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson’s spectacular stickhandling produced their third shootout goal and 20-year-old goaltender Maddie Rooney thwarted Canada’s Meghan Agosta. That stop triggered a sudden downpour of high-flung hockey sticks and gloves as U.S. players poured off the bench to celebrate.

“Frickin’ Maddie Rooney,” forward Amanda Pelkey said affectionately. “She just kept calm the whole time. There wasn’t any doubt in my mind that she was going to make that save and win it for us.”

They got this far only because they stuck together through challenges that could easily have driven them apart. Last spring the players threatened to boycott the world championships unless they were given better pay and more marketing and development efforts by USA Hockey.

A few days before the worlds, an agreement was reached. They then won their fourth straight world title and seventh in eight years.

“I think this performance sort of transcended our sport just because we weren’t receiving the right support of a goldmedal-winning team,” forward Hilary Knight said. “And this is what a goldmedal-winning team looks like with the right support.”

The top three teams — Finland won bronze — had medals placed around their necks by Angela Ruggiero, a member of the first U.S. women’s team to win gold in 1998. Many Canadian players cried; defenseman Jocelyne Larocque quickly took her medal off.

To Pelkey, having Ruggiero bestow that honor was the perfect touch on a perfect day.

“She is and will always be a legend,” Pelkey said. “It all tied together so perfectly that she was the one giving us the medal.”

No one gave them anything. They earned this. Together.