USA falls to Canada in Rivalry Series finale
Hope growth of game continues
DETROIT – It was on Sunday 21 years ago, that the United States women’s national hockey team made history.
It wasn’t that it was the first year the Winter Olympics featured women’s hockey, although that was a milestone.
Rather, it was the gold medal game, in which Team Canada was favored, having won seven championships out of a possible eight in the 4 Nations Cup, World Championships and Pacific Rim Championships.
The United States shocked the hockey world by beating Canada 3-1 in the gold medal game in Nagano, Japan, becoming the first women’s team to win gold in hockey.
This past Sunday at Little Caesars Arena, Team USA honored their counterparts from 21 years ago, but ultimately lost the final Rivalry Series game with Team Canada, 2-0, and the series, 2-1, at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.
“Anytime we can play these guys it’s fun, we strive for these games, it’s what we train for, it was obviously not the turnout we wanted today on home soil,” Team USA forward Brianna Decker said. “Heck of game, I think it was fun to play against those guys and hopefully we can continue to play them.”
“They started the dream for all of us in this room. Some of us were super young, others were watching. To have a historic moment, to win the gold medal for the United States in women’s hockey, for it’s birth in the Olympic stage is pretty incredible,” Team USA forward Hilary Knight said. “I consider Cammi Granato one of my idols and it’s really cool to wear number 21 and continue to try and fill her shoes and push the sport forward.”
The two teams squared off this past week in London and Toronto Ontario with the three-game series wrapping up in Detroit on Sunday.
Team USA won the first game in London, 1-0, followed by Canada winning 4-3 in Toronto.
Canada opened the scoring as Brianne Jenner found the net on a shot from the point on the power play early in the first period.
Then, in the second period, it was Jamie Lee Rattray who found Blayre Turnbull
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Well, NBA Allstar week seemed to be hit in Charlotte, N.C., and the big finale, the All-star Game, didn’t feature much defense (as expected) but featured plenty of fan-pleasing highlights (as expected).
Ultimately, Team Lebron beat Team Giannis, 178-164, with a 40-9 run in the second half. But not before Steph Curry got a reverse two-handed dunk to cap it off for Team Giannis. The teams took 168 3-point shots. Late in the third quarter, Damian Lillard and Klay Thompson literally shot Team Lebron (which was heavily favored) back into the game from 18 points back. Usually there isn’t much defense played until late in the game, but the guys appeared to ratchet up the play during that stretch.
That carried over in the fourth quarter,
on a 2-on-1 with a pass out front, in which Turnbull tipped it into the top right corner for a 2-0 lead.
Team USA had chances, out-shooting Canada 38-17, but it was Shannon Szabados that earned the shutout.
“I thought the girls played really well in front of me. Didn’t give up a ton of odd man rushes,” Szabados said. “Most everything was either from the point or from the sides and again if there was anything in front, they battled. I think just a strong game in front of me.”
It was also nearly one year ago that Team USA won gold over Canada in the 2018 Pyongchang Winter Olympics.
Jocelyne Lamoureux-davidson scored the gold-medal winning goal in the 13th round of the shootout, to give Team USA its second gold medal at the Winter Olympics.
Both teams will have six weeks to prepare for the IIHF World Championships in May in Slovakia. Team USA acknowledged they’ll need to make improvements. “Any time you get on the ice with a great team, you’ll have some errors, some breakdowns and we had them tonight but at the same time we had successes as well, so it’s really taking the errors back to the drawing board, working on them and making sure we’re ready for the next six weeks,” Knight said.
On the ice on Sunday for Team USA, 13 players from the gold-medal winning team one year ago, led by captain Kendall Coyne-schofield.
“Until I was seven, I wanted to play for the (Chicago) Blackhawks. I didn’t see women’s hockey, I don’t really remember the ‘98 team playing in the Olympics. I remember meeting Cammi Granato. I went to the United Center in 2006 and I was a bug on the glass, how do I get out there,” Coyne-schofield said. “That was the first time I saw women playing and I realized I can do what she did. It is so important for us to be accessible, play all over the United States and grow the game. This Rivalry Series has been unbelievable and I hope we continue to do it, year after year.”