Canadian women fall flat in New Year’s game in Winnipeg
USA knocks off Canada in final hockey
game before February Olympics
SHERI LAMB STAFF
It was an uninspired effort from the Canadian Women’s Hockey team in their final pre-Olympic game against rival Team USA on New Year’s Day at the MTS Centre.
For the second time in four games versus their rivals, Team Canada lost, this time 5-3 in front of a partisan Canadian crowd of 12,628. It’s the last time the two teams will meet before they arrive in Turin, Italy, where it’s expected they will once again square off for the Olympic gold medal in women’s hockey.
Canadian head coach Melody Davidson didn’t hesitate to express her disappointment with her team’s play when asked by reporters after the game.
“I just said we were horseshit,” said Davidson. “We just didn’t compete.”
It was the second win for the Americans in the battle of the powerhouses in women’s hockey in just over a month, as they beat Canada 2-1 in a shootout on Nov. 27. Canada had won the last two games in the series, including a 4-2 decision on Dec. 30 in St. Paul, Minnesota.
“I’m not making excuses, but we just didn’t play and we’ll be much better the next days and the next games, but that’s just not acceptable and it’ll make us hungrier and we’ll be better the next time we step on the ice,” said Davidson.
To their credit, each member of the Canadian team who talked to the media after the game echoed their coach’s sentiments about their play.
Jennifer Botterill, the only full-time member of this year’s Olympic team from Winnipeg, was unhappy with the team’s effort on New Year’s, admitting it was a lost opportunity to mentally get an advantage over the Americans before the Olympics in February.
“Every time we play them it’s a competitive, intense atmosphere, but like I said earlier, we’re going to have to turn it around and let this be a wake-up call for us that we do have some work to do before we head off to the Olympics.”
In Turin, Botterill will be counted on to contribute to the special teams play, be solid on face-offs, play consistent hockey and use her offensive capabilities on the score sheet, Davidson said.
The Canadians were playing catch up right from the start, as the Americans made it 1-0 only 21 seconds into the first period.
A power-play goal three minutes later tied the game at 1-1 for Canada, but they couldn’t match the intensity of the women from down South in the first period, as the Americans capitalized again before the end of the period. American Katie King flew down the right wing with less than five minutes and fired a one-timer past Canadian goalie Charline Labonte to take a 2-1 lead into the intermission.
The Canadians came out flying in the second period, taking the play to the Americans, but could only get one puck past U.S. goaltender Pam Dreyer. Danielle Goyette tied the game up at 2-2 with a power-play goal, deadlocking the teams heading into the third.
The Americans scored early in the third to take a 3-2 lead, but once again, Canada was able to even the score a few minutes later when Cheryl Pounder scored from a scramble in front of Dreyer. Despite out-shooting the Americans 28-22, Canada couldn’t get another goal.
The U.S. women scored the winner at 14:16, when Kristin King found the back of the net for the 4-3 lead, and put the game away three minutes later, when Krissy Wendell scored an unassisted goal.
“We’re just really disappointed that we didn’t show the crowd and the rest of the country (the game was televised on TSN) what we can do, but we will when the time comes,” said Davidson.
The Olympic preliminary round of women’s hockey kicks off February 11, with the gold medal final on Monday, February 20. Canada is in pool A along with Sweden, Russia and the host country Italy, while the Americans face off in pool B with the ever-improving Finnish team, as well as Germany and Switzerland.
