The Girls Are Buzzing: USA vs Canada Olympic Women's Hockey Live Blog
Elsa. Getty Images.It's the final day/night of the preliminary round in the women's hockey tournament, which means we finally get a chance to see a preview for the gold medal game between USA and Canada. Both teams are 3-0 through the first few days of the tournament. Canada has been shit pumping their opponents more than the Americans, but goal differential doesn't really mean shit here since the winner will take the top spot of group A into the elimination rounds.
If you look at the stats, 9 out of the top 10 point scorers in the tournament so far are Canadian. Sarah Fillier and Sarah Nurse currently lead the tournament in goals with 5 and 4 a piece. Natalie Spooner leads the tournament in points with 10 in just 3 games. And Hilary Knight is the only American in the top 10 with 3 goals and 2 assists so far.
But the biggest stat to remember here is that Team USA is still the reigning gold medalists after beating Canada 3-2 in a shootout in 2018. Defending champs taking on a group of ladies who have been bullying the shit out of Finland, Russia and Switzerland. No matter what, we'll end up seeing these two teams again playing for the gold medal so maybe this game doesn't mean quite as much as it will on February 17th, but still. These teams hate the shit out each other so I doubt they'd take it easy in this one to save any gas in the tank for the gold medal game. It's full send every time we get USA vs Canada in the women's tournament. So let's get after it, and here's a little something to hold you over until puck drop.
Live blog activated.
1st Period Updates: USA 0 - Canada 1
Once both teams started to settle into the game a little, USA had the ice tilted like a sonnovabitch. Shift after shift they were applying pressure, having extended possession in the offensive zone, and somehow this Abbey Murphy backhand didn't end up in the back of the net. But you know the way that hockey works. Just as one team is racking up all the chances, the other team catches a break and the momentum shifts. That break was a roughing penalty against USA and then Brianne Jenner opened up the scoring on the powerplay for Canada.
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Sick little passing play and great finish from the Canadians here. It just sucks that the IIHF won't let the girls play. The no checking rule in women's hockey needs to get stuffed in a locker whenever you have USA vs Canada. This rivalry is way too heated to not let the ladies throw the body around out there. So for Canada to get on the board because USA was just a little too physical, that doesn't sit well with me. Luckily there's still 40 more minutes for the hockey gods to right their wrong.
2nd Period Updates: USA 2 - Canada 4
Dani Cameranesi, Johnny on the spot. Finally Team USA catches some luck off the rebound, the puck ends right back onto Cameranesi's stick, and she stuffs that one home to tie the game. And just like that, the floodgates opened wide the frick up in this game. Next up it was Alex Carpenter with a crispy backhand finish on the powerplay to give Team USA their first lead of the night.
The only issue is that lead lasted less than 30 seconds when Brianne Jenner got her 2nd of the night to immediately tie the game at 2 again. A few minutes later, Jamie Lee Rattray finished off a big time power move from Natalie Spooner to give the Canadians the lead again. And toward the end of the period, Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin decided to be the fastest human on the planet and drew a penalty shot on the breakaway.
Poulin missed her shootout attempt against USA in the gold medal game last Olympics, so you knew she was going to bury this one and put the Canadians up by 2.
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If you can't watch either of those last 2 clips, that's because the NBC Olympic twitter account sucks at putting up highlights and they'll sue the shit out of you if you post any of your own. Soooo yeah. Guess you'll just have to use your imagination. 5 goals in the 2nd period of this game and it looks like whoever is running that account decided to just go to sleep.
3rd Period Updates: USA 2 - Canada 4
Well I guess the ladies used up all the goals in the 2nd period because after 5 goals in the 2nd, we finished off with 20 minutes of scoreless hockey in the 3rd. Canada wins 4-2 and heads into the elimination round as the 1-seed in Group A.
This could be a good thing for USA, though. Get the one loss they can afford out of the way now. It's tough to beat the same team twice, and that's what Canada will have to do if they want to win gold. Sucks USA only led for 26 seconds this game but they've been in the lead for the past 4 years, I'm sure they'll survive.
Final Score: Canada 4 - USA 2