Rivalry Renewed For Gold

Here we go again. Thursday Afternoon, with the biggest prize in international hockey on the line between the two biggest powers in the women's ice hockey game. It's USA and Canada once again for Gold.

It's no surprise that the two biggest power in international hockey are the United State and Canada. They have been the biggest powers in hockey for as long as anybody can remember. It was shown to the whole wide world once women's hockey became an Olympic sport in 1998. And these two nations have won every gold medal at the Olympics since 98. There was one year when it wasn't USA-Canada for gold and that was in 2006, when Sweden upset the US in the semifinals.

This year has a different vibe going into the gold medal game. Canada went 3-0-0-1 in the tournament. The only loss was a 5-0 shutout loss to the Americans in the preliminary round. More on that in a second.  Canada scored 14 goals in the tourney, giving up just 6. It was a 4-0 over Switzerland, a 5-1 win over Czechia, a 5-0 win over Finland and that 5-0 loss to the US. Once the medal round started it was a 5-1 win over Germany and a 2-1 win over Switzerland.

As for the Americans, they rolled through this tournament with a perfect record, going 4-0 and outscoring opponents 20-1. The only goal the US gave up was one late in the 2nd period in their opener against Czechia. They won that game 5-1. America followed it up with a 5-0 win over Finland, another 5-0 win over Switzerland, a 5-0 win over Canada. Then in the medal round it was a 6-0 win over Italy and a 5-0 win over Sweden. 

Now to the game itself. The US has beaten Canada twice for gold, in 1998 and then again in 2018. This game is going to be another tight checking affair. The last three meetings for gold, they have been the same 3-2 score, so expect nothing different here. What might make a big difference in this game is Canada's best player, Marie-Philip Poulin, is back in there. She scored both goals for the Canadians to get them into the gold medal game. On the other side of the ice, Caroline Harvey has been powering the ship for the Americans. USA has a very balanced attack and they been getting scoring from every line in this tournament, which is going to make things a lot tougher for the Canadians to handle.

Whatever the final result turns out to be Thursday afternoon, its going to be one hell of a hockey game.