BEIJING, Feb. 15 (BUS): Hilary Knight hasn’t thought of a better way to close the women’s hockey tournament at the Beijing Games than a rematch between the US and – who else? – Canada on the line gold medal.
During one Olympic tournament that has been criticized for lacking parity for too many unbalanced scores — and big in terms of predictability for US and Canadian dominance again — the title will be appropriately settled between the world’s two major powers on Thursday, the AP reports.
It will represent the next chapter in a fierce competition dating back to the Americans’ victory over Canada at the 1998 Nagano Games, the first women’s hockey game.
“You know, I think it’s great hockey. It’s the most beautiful competition in the sport,” Knight said after scoring a goal and adding an assist in the USA’s 4-1 win over Finland on Monday. And it’s just a great game.”
Canada took a lead earlier in the day when they topped five first-half goals over an Olympic record of 3:24 in the 10-3 win over Switzerland.
The match will be the sixth time out of seven Olympics that the United States and Canada have met for the gold medal. The only exception was the 2006 Turin Games, when Canada defeated Sweden after the Swedes eliminated the Americans in the semi-finals.
While the Americans are the Olympic title holders after winning 3-2 on penalties at the 2018 PyeongChang Games, Canada is the favorite in Beijing. The Canadians jumped through the tournament with a 6-0 record, beating contenders 54-8, including a 4-2 win over the United States in last week’s final preliminary round.
Canada captain Marie-Philippe Paulin, who scored twice against Switzerland, said her team they face in the final didn’t make a difference.
“We have worked for these moments. We have been working for four years,” said Pauline. “I think we deserve it.”
However, Canadian player Sarah Norse was looking to renew the rivalry once again.
“Obviously, playing with the US is always an exciting game, and the rivalry is always exciting,” said Nurse, who provided four assists. “Our biggest focus is to play another match in the Olympics. We came here to play seven matches. We wanted the last match to be the gold medal match.”
The Americans will be there waiting to meet them.
Kayla Barnes scored a goal and an assist, while Hayley Scamora and Abi Rocky scored against Finland as well. Alex Cavallini stopped 25 shots and the attempt to shoot Susanna Tabani’s goal ended 26 seconds before the end of the match.
Finland will meet Switzerland in the bronze medal match on Wednesday in a repeat of the same matches from the world championships in August, when Canada beat the United States 3-2 in overtime of the championship match. Finland won the bronze with a 3-1 victory over Switzerland.
Barnes opened the scoring 3:39 in the second half against the Finns by pressing from the right point to convert Hannah Brandt’s pass across the fold into a power-playing goal. The call-up against Tanya Niskanen was called into question after the American appeared to have fallen on her own.
Finland coach Yosso Toivola did his best to be diplomatic in questioning the penalty kick.
“Do I have to answer?” Toyvola said. “I don’t usually talk about referees, but I didn’t like that call.”
What he also didn’t like was the difficulty his team had in containing the Americans’ pace during the second period.
Knight, who is playing in her 21st Olympic game for the US women’s team, scored the eventual winner of the match with 1:07 per second remaining. Savannah Harmon’s initial shot was blocked, Knight got a moving disc to the left of the net and hit her eleventh Olympic goal of her career, tying Jenny Potter for third on the US list.
Annie Kisala stopped 38 shots for Finland.
The Canadians were the team most in control of the tournament by raising the bar for the women’s match with four deep offensive lines relentlessly.
“I think we’re taking the game to new heights right now,” said a nurse. “We are playing a style of hockey that we have never seen in our tournament before. And so, in 5-10 years, other countries will play our style of play, we will continue to push the envelope and continue to improve our sport.”
The five goals scored in under 3 and a half minutes broke the previous record set by the Canadians in 2010, when they scored five goals in the 4:03m period in a 13-1 victory over Sweden.
A barrage of rocket attacks left Switzerland coach Colin Muller dazed at how quickly things erupted.
“We had a four-minute blackout,” he said. “You can’t give them that momentum because they are like sharks when they smell blood. And when they taste it, they are gone.”
Unlike the high-scoring Canadians, the US struggled to finish off chances while also playing without central defender Brianna Decker, who broke her leg in the opening game of the 5-2 win over Finland.
The difficulties continued on Monday after a first goalless streak in which the Americans took a shot advantage of 12-6. Kesala got her right padded to eagle-eyed stop on Amanda Kessel driving in a split-off, while Kelly Bannick stopped trying to stoop in a loose disc from the top of the tuck.
The Americans outnumbered the Finns 42-26.
The United States ranks fifth out of 10 teams in scoring efficiency with 28 goals in 334 leading shots in the tournament. The American Power Game ranked fourth in converting six out of 26 chances.