For the second night in a row, a United States hockey team came up short at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games.
After falling behind by three goals in the first 30 minutes of play, the U.S. women's team fought back with two scores of its own, but ultimately fell short, 3-2, to Canada last night in the gold-medal game in Beijing, China.
Canada regains the gold medal it surrendered to the U.S. in a shootout in South Korea four years ago, and has now won five of the seven gold medals awarded all-time in Olympic women's hockey. The Canadians had earlier defeated the Americans, 4-2, during the round-robin portion of this year’s tournament.
After its opening goal was disallowed due to an offside play, Sarah Nurse (Wisconsin) staked Canada to a 1-0 lead after tipping home a shot. Team Canada captain Marie-Philip Poulin (Boston University) then scored her team’s next two goals, spanning the first and second periods, including the game-winning goal. Poulin has now recorded three game-winners among her seven goals in four Olympic gold medal outings, while Nurse led all scorers in this year's tournament with 18 points, including 13 assists.
Hilary Knight (Wisconsin) tallied a shorthanded goal late in the second stanza to get the Americans on the board. Amanda Kessel (Minnesota) then notched an extra-attacker power-play goal with just 12.5 seconds remaining in regulation, but it was as close as Team USA would get despite outshooting Canada, 16-4, over the final 20 minutes of play.
The U.S. is now 2-4 all-time in gold-medal Olympic contests against Canada, and has earned four silver medals, two gold medals, and one bronze medal (2006) in Olympic competition since women’s ice hockey became a medal sport in 1998. Canada has two silvers (1998, 2018) to go along with its five golds.
Ann-Renee Desbiens (Wisconsin) stopped 38 shots for Canada in last night's victory, while Alex Cavallini (Wisconsin) finished with 18 stops for the Team USA. Canadian forward Brianne Jenner (Cornell) took home Olympic MVP honors after scoring a tournament-high nine goals in Beijing.
The U.S. and Canada will now look to renew their Olympic rivalry in 2026 in Italy.
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