Ice Hockey: Canada’s women go for three-peat on home soil – AFP News : Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics
Los Angeles (AFP) – Canada and the United States are the Olympic gold medal favourites as the rest of the world continues to play catch-up in women’s ice hockey.
It’s virtually certain that the two nations will clash in the championship game on February 25 at the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games as history is on their side.
In the previous three Olympic Games, the two teams have a combined 23-1-0 record and outscored opponents 168-17.
Team USA coach Mark Johnson says anytime the US and Canada meet you can expect fireworks.
“It is incredible end-to-end action and pure hockey from a skills standpoint,” said Johnson, son of former Calgary Flames coach ‘Badger Bob’ Johnson and a member of the US men’s 1980 gold medal winning team in Lake Placid.
The success of Canada and the US also highlights what’s wrong with the women’s tournament which has trouble being taken seriously because of the huge parity gap between the top two teams and the rest of the field.
Because they are playing at home, the pressure on two-time defending champion Canada will be just as heavy on the women as the men.
Canada is 10-0 in its last two Olympic Games and once again they will be led by 31-year-old veteran Hayley Wickenheiser, forward Caroline Ouellette and goaltender Kim St. Pierre.
Canada is preparing for its run at an Olympic three-peat by playing non-checking games against 16-year-old boys teams while the US players are warming-up by playing against Minnesota high school boys’ teams.
The women’s game is much different than the men’s because of the no-contact rules which opens the game up for smaller players.
American defenceman Angela Ruggiero said many parents wouldn’t let their daughters play hockey if there was checking.
“This way parents aren’t afraid to sign up their daughters,” she said. “I personally would love to check.”
On paper it might look like the US is heading in the wrong direction as they have gone from gold (1998), silver (2002) to bronze (2006) but, based on their recent success against Canada, some are even picking them as the gold medal favourite.
The US has won two straight World Championship titles over Canada and the team has had five months as a group together instead of forming at the last minute like previous Winter Games.
Sweden was the surprise silver medallist in Turin in 2006, beating the US 3-2 in the semi-finals.
The Swedes are led by goaltender Kim Martin, who is coming back from a knee injury that kept her out of the 2009 World Championships while Tina Enstrom is the sister of NHL defenceman Tobias Enstrom.
China’s coach Hannu Saintula has guaranteed that his team will finish at least sixth.
A handful of Chinese players like, Sun Rui, captain Wang Linuo and Jin Fengling are now training with North American players in a Canadian women’s league.
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