Anyone who has ever lived with me during an Olympic year knows that I really get into the Olympics. Like really into them. They especially know how hard I take it when they are over. And can you blame me? For two weeks you get to watch the world’s best athletes come together to compete for the ultimate prize: the gold metal. Every night being transported to a distant land and tuning into watch someone’s lifelong dream either be fulfilled or destroyed, and shedding tears of joy or sorrow on their behalf. Of course, those tears are once again shed when it is relived the next morning on the Today Show. Then, just as quickly as they came, they are gone and we are left with the fact this it is still February with summer being a long ways off, and the next Olympic Games even further away.
However, now that my evenings are free again, minus nights when the Avs play, I can finally write the post that has been brewing in my mind for awhile. It has already been a week since Jocelyne Lamoureux scored the game-winning goal for Team USA in the shootout vs. Team Canada to bring the much-deserved gold medal home, but it will be a game that will be long remembered. Not only was the game without a doubt the highlight of the Games, but it was also possibly one of the best hockey games I have ever watched.
While the first half of the game was fairly evenly matched, perhaps slightly favoring Canada, it was all Team USA in the third, which helped generate Monique Lamoureux’s (Jocelyne’s twin sister) game-tying goal with six minutes left in the game. The game would then go into sudden death overtime, where the US continued to dominate, and it was evident who wanted it more. Nearly every time Canada got the puck, the US forced a turnover, completely controlling the game. So when Canada’s captain, Marie-Philip Poulin, drew a penalty late in OT, I was trying to prepare myself for the worst.
Overtime is played 4-4, meaning that with a penalty the US would only have 3 women on the ice, compared to Canada’s four. First, this is a ridiculous rule that a championship game could be so heavily favored towards a team on a power play, and second, is was Poulin who scored the devastating game-winning goal against the US to win gold in Sochi. In overtime. On a power play. However, history was not to be repeated, as 20-year-old goaltender, Maddie Rooney, held strong and brought the team into the shootout. The shootout would go into six rounds with Jocelyne Lamoureux giving the US the go-ahead-goal, and Rooney making the final save against Canada’s Agosta to win gold.
The not always so cordial Canadian team, eh?
Team USA had not won the gold medal in 20 years, dating back to 1998 when the first women’s hockey tournament was played in the Olympics. The Canadians had reigned supreme for the last four Games, but the U.S. was able to put an end to their dynasty and denied them their chance at breaking an Olympic record of winning five consecutive gold medals in hockey. The US had lost the pervious two Olympic gold medal games to Canada first in Vancouver, then in Sochi, but in Pyeongchang it was finally their turn.
Victory is always sweet, but this win was ever more poignant for the US women’s team who almost didn’t get to compete when they threatened to boycott the world champions that were being held in Michigan last March. The women were trying to negotiate with USA Hockey for equal pay, maternity leave and childcare. They were also drawing attention to the amount of funding that boy’s youth hockey generates compared to the girl’s youth hockey that often goes overlooked. Meanwhile, the women weren’t even getting paid livable wages. USA Hockey was unable to find replacement players, and was forced to concede giving the women a salary of around $70,000. Maybe I should have played hockey after all.
The USA women’s hockey team was able to stand up for their equality, kick the ass out of their biggest completion in the most passionate level of play that I wish the Avs could play to most nights, and hopefully generating more awareness of their sport on a global level. Can I get a "Hell yeah!"?
Becky Ann Leeman competing in the Mount Rose beauty pageant in Drop Dead Gorgeous.
While I always love my boys in burgundy and blue, I couldn’t be prouder of the girls in red, white and blue. And as quoted in the classic 90s film, Drop Dead Gorgeous, “U.S.A. is A. Ok”.