U.S. women's hockey moves on to gold-medal game vs. Canada
BEIJING — Once more, the United States women’s hockey team will go for gold. Once more, they’ll have to go through Canada to snare it.
The American women, defending gold medal champions following their dramatic shootout win in 2018, earned their way into the 2022 gold-medal game against Canada with a grinding, gritty 4-1 semifinal victory over Finland Monday night.
"To be able to say our next game is a gold medal game is pretty special," Alex Carpenter said.
The game marked the second meeting between the two nations during these Games and 10th overall. Team USA had beaten Finland 5-2 earlier this Olympics. The United States also knocked off Finland, 5-0, in the 2018 Olympic semifinals en route to winning gold.
From the start, though, it was clear Finland arrived in these semifinals with a plan. Team USA likes to shoot anywhere, anytime, constantly and continuously. The United States has totaled more than 50 shots on goal in each of its last five games, including outshooting Finland 51-12 in their first meeting.
Finland effectively threw itself in front of the United States to keep that from happening this time around, skating into passing lanes, disrupting every shot, making sure that no player on Team USA spent too much time untouched or comfortable. And for the first period, it worked; the Americans only managed 12 shots to Finland’s 6, and neither team found the back of the net.
The Americans continued firing with even greater frequency in the second, getting off 21 shots, and this time, two of them found the net. Cayla Barnes scored at the 23:39 mark of the game, and Hilary Knight followed it with a goal off a deflection with just over a minute left in the period.
Tempers started running high midway through the period, with Team USA’s Jesse Compher and Dani Cameranesi taking turns in the penalty box for roughing and an illegal hit, respectively. Finland’s Petra Nieminen joined them for roughing, drawing the call after Compher ran hard into Finland’s goalie Meeri Raisanen and Nieminen came to her defense.
Up 2-0 heading into the final period, Team USA turned conservative … or what passes for conservative for the Americans, anyway. They took only seven shots in the first 15 minutes of the third period, content to grind down Finland, until Hayley Scamurra scored her first goal of the Olympics. That extended the margin to 3-0 with less than five minutes remaining. Finland’s Susana Tapani slipped in a pride goal with 26 seconds left in the game, but Team USA’s Abby Roque threw in an empty-netter 21 seconds later to close out Finland and set up the Canada rematch.
"We're in a great place," Barnes said. "Our back's been up against the wall a few times and we've found a way to score. We've learned a lot and I'm happy with the way we're heading."
Hockey games are the most “normal” events of these Olympics, at least by American standards. Although the stands are, at most, one-tenth full, there are elements of joy and celebration that aren’t present at any other events. A team of mask-clad cheerleaders stood around the middle ring of the arena performing synchronized dance moves. The organist rolled out classic hockey arena tunes like “Freeze Frame” and the theme from “Rocky,” and the music included a healthy selection of Dr. Dre tunes, a likely tribute to the Super Bowl halftime show that had occurred earlier in the day, Beijing time.
A small core of fans bellowed from the rafters, cheering for both teams and for chaos. There was even a Valentine’s Day kiss cam, albeit one with some odd tinges. It’s tough to kiss in masks, and it’s even tougher to kiss if both you and your significant other are on your phones when the camera finds you.
There were differences, though. For one thing, the Chinese fans cheered the referees as they took the ice. And Bing Dwen Dwen, the chubby panda mascot of the Beijing Olympics, loomed frequently in the stands, popping out into the arena through concourse tunnels and vanishing just as quickly.
The U.S. now moves on to face Canada once again in the gold-medal game. Team USA defeated Team Canada in a dramatic shootout in 2018, but prior to that, the Untied States had not won gold since 1998.
“I think we know that history, but we're going to give ourselves a blank slate,” Canada’s Brianne Jenner said earlier Monday. “We've got to go out and have a gold-medal performance, whether it results in a gold medal (or not). We want to make sure we go out and get the best performance we possibly can.”
Team Canada will be coming in strong. Earlier in the day on the same ice, Canada had decimated Switzerland 10-3, and earlier in the tournament, Canada knocked off the United States in round-robin play 4-2. Canada attempted barely half as many shots as the United States — 27 to 53 — but in that game, accuracy outweighed volume.
"It's one of the best rivalries in sports," Barnes said. "Definitely looking forward to playing against a great Canadian team."
The game is scheduled for Thursday at 12:10 p.m. Beijing time, which is 11:10 p.m. ET on Wednesday in the United States.
