BALTIMORE, Maryland February 20, 2014 - The United States' Women's Hockey team never trailed in the gold medal game until Canada scored a bit over eight minutes into sudden death overtime. That goal was fiendish, The defeat was stark and so very fast and totally undeserved. The USA led the game deciding which of the two teams would earn the gold medal, 2-0, with just over three minutes left in the game. Until then; that is, for the first 56 minutes of the game, the Americans had played a noble and magnificent game on both ends of the ice. They were aggressive, fast and smart as smart could be. When the Canadians gathered the puck and attempted to break out of their end, they were constantly harassed by the American forwards jumping their passing lanes and playing tough along the boards. The American offense owned the puck enough to keep the Canadians back on their heels throughout. The first period was scoreless. Both teams joined the battle from the outset and never let up. Players on both teams stepped up and played their best games. The USA grabbed the lead with 11:57 left in the second period on a goal by a hard-working Megan Duggan. h each squad getting its chances and many players stepping up, playing their best games. There had been talk in the pre-game that the Canadians intended to out-physical the Americans. Who is to say if they actually tried that. They did not succeed if they did. Both teams exhibited a willingness to whack the other in appropriate moments. Fore-checking, a staple of men's hockey, is forbidden in women's hockey. But contact is not. The officials in this game allowed contact if it was in the context of fighting for possession of the puck. But the officials frowned on plays in which a stick was used to hook an opponent. And they used their whistles when one player intentionally knocked another down. Until the overtime their officiating had been worthy of the importance of the game. But the officials lost control of the game and much of their integrity in the overtime.
If anyone expected either team to change strategies after Duggan broke through, they were disappointed. And then, just two minutes into the final period, Hilary Knight won a battle along the boards to the left of Canadian Goalie Shannon Szabados. Once in control of the puck, she looked up and saw Alex Carpenter near the net just to the right of Szabados. Just that quickly Knight guided a deft pass to Carpenter's stick, Carpenter, like a surgeon, immediately guided the puck home. Now the Americans had what looked like a working lead. Although Team USA became a just a bit defensive-minded, their forwards continued to attack and harass the Canadians at Canada's end of the ice. The clock did continue to run, but ever-so-slowly. Inside of four minutes left in the game, and still behind by two goals, Team Canada pressed the attack with desperation. With 3:26 left, they finally broke through. Now, the game changed dramatically.
Team USA was now just trying to hold on, holding on, in fact, for dear life. The Americans, so technically sound throughout, now looked frazzled. No longer was the defense a stalwart presence in front of the goal. Now, shots were fired at USA Goalie Jessie Vetter without a defenseman in sight. No longer was the offense poised to break out; instead, they joined the defense in a desperate scramble. Jessie Vetter, for the first time, looked tense. And still, nearly two minutes passed after the Canadian goal and Team USA still had the lead. Now the Canadians were the ones taking the desperate tact. The pulled Szabados in favor of an extra attacker. Suddenly, amazingly, the USA appeared to catch a huge break. One of the officials appeared to inadvertently interfere with a Canadian and the puck came onto the stick of the American Forward, Kelli Stack. Given a chance to clear the puck, Stack sent it toward the Canadian end, and - did she intend to? - in the poignant direction of the empty Canadian goal. In those moments, time seemed to stand still. The ice was now rough, bruised, filled with small rivulets and unseemly peaks. The puck bounced haphazardly over these hazards and toward the abandoned Team Canada net. Now it slid into the blue-tinted goal crease, still spinning rapidly. And then, astoundingly, the puck smacked into and then ricocheted off of the red steel goal post. It immediately hopped up into the air, about six inches off of the ice. It was now spinning very rapidly. Would it, could it, land on the ice and still spin into the goal? Every single eye in the arena was glued to the small rubber puck, but when it did land on the ice it spun harmlessly away from the net and toward the corner of the rink. A retreating Canadian picked it up and Team Canada again headed up the ice. Was this an omen? It was as if the Canadians were ordained to succeed. About 35 seconds later, and with less than one minute left, the Canadians scored again to tie the game. In less than three minutes the defending Olympic Champs had scored two goals after not scoring any for the first 56 minutes of the game.
Now the game moved in to a sudden death overtime with a maximum length of 20 minutes. Each team loses a player in such an affair - how does changing the nature of the game at such a pivotal moment prove which is the championship team? - so that now, counting the goalie, the teams play 5 on 5. Despite the devastation of losing their two-goal lead, the United States regrouped and quickly pressed the attack. There was a scramble in front of the goal and shots flew. Suddenly a whistle, correctly blown, and Canadian Catherine Ward headed off the ice for a two minute penalty. She had intentionally knocked an American down very near the front of the goal.
Now with an extra skater, the United States immediately pressed the attack. There was a shot on goal and Szabados was able to block it. Jocelyne Lamoureux, a hard-nosed and very effective American forward, swooped in on Szabados who seemed, in this instant, not to have total control of the puck. Seeing it loose, the American shot at the puck with her stick, something that had happened dozens of times throughout not only this game, but all of thea others also.. But now, unlike the other times, a whistle blew. A nervous and, let us be honest, cowardly official made her decision not to have the game decided during a power play. The only way to accomplish this was by calling a penalty. She decided to send Jocelyne Lamoureux to the penalty box. Now she had to decide what the penalty was. She said she saw Lamoureux slash. Huh? Slash what? Slash who? Said one hockey zealot from Canada: "It was the worse call I have ever seen." There of course had been no slash. While the officials had no choice but to call the penalty on Ward - the Canadian was only too happy to trade her two minute penalty for a good chance at losing - the call on Lamoureux was appalling and embarassing. I was embarassed for them. And instead of ensuring the game was decided with the teams at equal strength, she actually ensured that the game would be decided with Team Canada at an unseemly advantage.
Will there be an apology? Or is there no integrity where it needs to be?
Now the gold medal was to be decided with each team down two players. The ice somehow seemed somewhat deserted. In this strange situation, Stack now erred and a Canadian, Haley Wickenheiser, one of Canada's biggest and most adept skaters, picked up the puck and barreled down the ice toward Vetter on a dreaded breakaway. As she crossed the American blue line, the athletic and speedy Knight caught up with her and moved to pass her, get in front of her, and break up the play. Wickenheiser, for no visible reason, went down - the Americans bristled because there appeared no reason for someone as strong and athletic as Wickenheiser to fall - and a whistle blew. No penalty shot was awarded, but the Canadians were now up on players, 4-3, on Sochi's huge ice. With such an advantage, shots now rained down on Vetter. In seconds it was over.
In the wake of such a wrenching loss, it is difficult to imagine how hard the Americans worked. And yet we all know that they worked extremely hard. They were on a mission. Only once had the USA Women won Olympic Gold. That was in 1998, the first time the women played hockey in the Olympics. This time the American women literally threw themselves to the task. In a pre-Olympic set of games against Canada, the Americans won in a sweep. Yet in a preliminary game in Sochi, the Canadians won. These two teams are very very even. The Americans spent hours glaring at game films after the first Sochi loss,6ttt5 and felt they had recognized all of their faults. For over 56 minutes, it appeared that they had. Now, as the end of the game appeared as a brilliant light at the end of a long and very dark tunnel, a surreal life drama played out. The light dimmed - maybe it had never been there at all, maybe it was just a reflection off of the silver medals waiting for them - and then the light went out.
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