USA TODAY International Edition
Beating Finland provides blueprint for USA
GANGNEUNG, South Korea – U.S. goalie Maddie Rooney was 7 months old when the Americans captured the first Olympic women’s hockey gold medal in 1998. She thinks she was “in the crib watching that game.”
Every U.S. player knows the story of that historic triumph, and every player knows no American woman has worn an Olympic hockey gold since then.
“That has always been our dream — to follow the 1998 team,” Rooney said. “They have been our leaders and great role models. It would mean everything for us.”
The 2018 U.S. team continued its quest to break Canada’s Olympic dominance by defeating Finland 5-0 Monday to set up a gold medal meeting Thursday. Canada defeated the Olympic Athletes from Russia 5-0 in the second semifinal.
“You literally train four years for this one game,” U.S. forward Monique Lamoureux-Morando said. “We are a tightknit group. This is what we worked for — the chance to play for this gold medal.”
What U.S. coach Robb Stauber might have enjoyed most about the win against Finland is that it provides a blueprint for how the USA needs to play to beat Canada. The Americans went aggressively to the net and scored three power-play goals.
“It shows we were in the position to score,” said Dani Cameranesi, who netted two goals.
The Americans have outshot all of their opponents, including Canada, but they had not been scoring at the rate they should.
Stauber had spent four practices working on finding ways to score with defenders packed in front of the net.
“Tips. Screens. Deflections,” Stauber said. “You are going to have to get some ugly ones.”
Gigi Marvin, Hilary Knight and Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson also scored for the USA. It was Knight’s first goal of the tournament, another positive sign for the Americans.
“We are clicking,” Knight said. “We are humming. It wasn’t just one line — it was all four.”
The five goals came against Finland’s Noora Raty, considered by some to be the world’s best goalie.
“Very excited by what I saw tonight,” Stauber said.
The Americans played their best game the tournament, though Stauber thinks his team could have been a little cleaner.
“But we had gold medal preparation,” Stauber said.
The Americans will need the same level of preparation and performance to beat Canada. The teams are as evenly matched as two competitors can be. Their games are routinely decided by one goal. The Americans have won seven of the past eight world championships, but the Canadians won the past four meetings of the pre-Olympic tour and won 2-1 in the preliminary round.
But this American team has shown unrelenting resolve on and off the ice. Before starting their Olympic journey, the American women won a hard-fought battle against USA Hockey over increased financial compensation.
It might have helped prepare them for this battle, although no one is thinking about those negotiations now.
What does matter is that there are 10 Olympic veterans on the American team who know the pain of losing a gold medal game.
Knight has twice experienced the heartache of losing an Olympic final.
“It’s like having a bad relationship and having it go sour,” she said. “It’s always going to be there, a main part of your fabric. But it has motivated me tremendously.”
She says she has learned from her failures, mostly about who she is and what she wants. It’s also taught her about her team and what it needs to do to be successful.
“What we are looking to do in the gold medal game,” Knight said, “is to do something extraordinary.”