Live Olympics: Medals Count, Hockey & Skating News

After 26 women’s hockey competitions in Beijing this month, the seemingly inevitable turned into lockdown on Monday: Canada and the United States will play for the gold medal.

Teams that have competed for gold at every Games except one since 1998, when women’s hockey became an Olympic sport, defined their championship match by hopping into the semi-finals that at times seemed like more of a formality than two great stages.

Canada suffered a defeat today, defeating Switzerland 10-3. The United States competed with Finland, who took bronze at the 2018 Games, and won by a much narrower margin, winning 4-1. But with all the constant talk of focusing on one game and one opponent at a time, Americans and Canadians ended up where they wanted – and where nearly everyone expected them.

“It was a very perfect match in the gold-medal game,” said Sarah Norse, a forward who is on her second Canadian Olympic team. “We wanted to face adversity today, and I think the Swiss played well with us.”

The scoreboard only showed so much evidence of this.

In the February 3 rematch that Canada won by 11 goals, the Canadians took about seven minutes on Monday to score. Then it looked as if they would never stop scoring.

There was a fierce shot from the standoff circuit by Claire Thompson. Aberration gave Jimmy Lee Rattray a chance to seize. Player Turnbull Scoring. So did Renata Fast and Irene Ambrose.

Five Canadian goals in less than four minutes.

The Swiss, having already surrendered the winning goal, did not completely fade away. Lara Stalder put Switzerland on the scoreboard towards the end of the first half and Alina Muller, the 15-year-old sensational attacker when she helped Switzerland win the bronze medal at the 2014 Games, capped a rapidly developing play early in the second half with a goal of her own. Staller scored again later in this period.

But Canadians kept scoring the whole time. By the end of the second, the score was 8-3.

Emma Maltis and Brian Jenner added goals for Canada in the third half. The team scored 54, the most of any team at the Beijing Olympics.

“To score the way we score, it wasn’t just showing up for this tournament,” Jenner said. “We’ve been building, building, and building for years.”

The Finns, who nearly beat the Americans at the 2019 World Championships, constituted an even tougher test for the United States after dark in Beijing. Although the Americans, as usual, easily outperformed their opponent, they again struggled to convert chances into points.

Dozens of American shots in the first period yielded no goals – the Americans made a 2-0 lead the first time when they played Finland on February 3 – and the semi-finals remained a goalless draw due to some quick moves by Alex Cavallini, who was a member of the team The American who won the gold medal at the 2018 PyeongChang Games.

It wasn’t until nearly 16 minutes per second left that Kayla Barnes, who earned the disc after Hilary Knight’s pass to Hannah Brandt, turned a quick flick of her wrist into a powerful play target.

Knight, who appeared in her 21st Olympic game on Monday, the US record holder in women’s hockey, fired with a shot to give the US a two-goal lead in the final inning.

By that time, the Americans had tried nearly three times as many shots as the Finns, who were winning more fights.

In the third inning, Hayley Scamora sent a long attempt through the legs of the Finnish goalkeeper to push the American lead up again.

Ice Hockey: Women’s Semi-Final Rounds Final				T
Finland	0	0	1	1
United States of America	0	2	2	4

Finland and Switzerland will play the bronze on Wednesday. The Swiss defeated the Finns 3-2 in a match on February 7th.

Canada won the preliminary round match against the United States 4-2 the following day. The Americans and Canadians play the final showdown of the tournament on Thursday afternoon in Beijing.

The Canadians insist they are not thinking about the 2018 Olympics, when the United States won the gold medal in a penalty shootout.

“I think we know that history, but we’re going to give ourselves a blank slate,” Jenner said. “We saw it as an opportunity to go out there and claim gold instead of looking at the history books and what happened.”