US Women’s Team Drops Canada to Win Olympic Gold

Photo: Eurosport

In case you missed it, the U.S.’s women’s hockey team defeated Team Canada. USA finally got the better of the two hated rivals to win their first gold medal at the Winter Olympic Games in two decades. The game got more ramped up as the game went along. Overtime wasn’t enough to solve a victor but the U.S. prevailed in a shootout.

This came on the 38th anniversary of one of the greatest games in Olympic hockey history – the Miracle on Ice. The men’s hockey team pulled the biggest upset in hockey history.

20 years later, we’re golden again. #GoTeamUSA pic.twitter.com/GSpjP1FH3O

— USA Hockey (@usahockey) February 22, 2018

This was the team’s first gold medal since the first tournament that women have won since 1988, when the Olympics took place in Nagano, Japan.

The Canadian team defeated the United States in four straight tournaments going into this one: 2002, 2006, 2010, and a crushing loss in 2014 in Sochi when the United States saw a late lead go away and lost in overtime.

In Wednesday’s game, the United States drew first blood late in the first period before Canada came back to take a 2-1 lead in the second. The Americans tied it with little more than six minutes remaining in the game. Then came a back and forth overtime but it was not enough, so they had to go to a sudden death shootout.

The Americans never trailed after 20-year-old goalie Maddie Rooney’s initial save, although the Canadians tied it up, sending the contest to a shootout.

In the shootout, Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson, 28, who was playing in her third Olympics, faked three times before slipping the puck into the right side of the net past the sprawling, falling Canadian goalie Shannon Szabados.

“The greatest day of all of our lives,” said U.S. captain Meghan Duggan.

“I’m so happy. Just take a picture of my face,” said 30-year-old veteran Gigi Marvin.