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Canada VS United States

canada beats united states for hockey and receive gold  medal.

Canada beats USA in overtime for Olympic women’s hockey gold in game for the ages

Just moments before, when Canada and the U.S., were in the middle of the damnedest hockey game anyone had ever seen, she’d been the picture of composure and confidence; the one her teammates looked to for reassurance. But now, the greatest player in the history of the women’s game, gave way to all the emotion of the previous four hours, if not the previous 16 years and tried to fight back tears.

“It’s not easy,” said the Team Canada institution. “I think people look at it like you just show up. It’s the time and the effort and the hell you go through to get here.

There was a lot going around at the Bolshoi Ice Palace on Thursday night. Tears of joy. Tears of sorrow. Tears of happiness. Tears of despair. In the end, Canada’s Marie-Philip Poulin scored the golden goal in overtime after she tied this epic affair with just under a minute left in regulation in the greatest game of women’s hockey ever played. And that left every player like Wickenheiser trying to understand what they’d just been a part of and trying to understand why a hockey game could touch the deepest part of their being; and trying to understand why this felt so great or it felt so freaking bad.

“I’m crying more because I look around at my teammates and I know how hard we worked every step of this journey,” said American forward Lyndsey Fry. “I think that’s the most heart-felt we’ve ever played and we played for each other. We really love each other.”

“To be back here with my jersey on and gold medal around my neck is the best thing ever,” said Poulin.

And she’s entitled to that feeling. But, really, the best thing ever was this game.

Sitting in a media work room at 2:30 in the morning isn’t the ideal circumstance to capture everything that happened on Thursday night and everything it represented. But we’ll try.

For 56 minutes and 34 seconds, Canada looked deader than Lenin, trailed 2-0 and had nothing going in their favour or at American goalie Jessie Vetter.

Then it changed when Canada’s Brianne Jenner’s shot caught a piece of American defenceman Kacey Bellamy and ricocheted past Vetter to make the score 2-1.

Then things got crazy.

With Canadian goalie Shannon Szabados pulled for an extra attacker, Canadian defenceman Catherine Ward became entangled with American forward Kelli Stack and the linesman, all of which conspired to send the puck toward the Canadian goal. The disc, which looked like one of Canadian curler Jennifer Jones draws, eventually settled at the base of the post and, miraculously, stayed out of the Canadian net.

“I thought it might be an omen for us that we had a good chance of coming back,” said Canada’s Natalie Spooner.

Then it got even crazier.

With Szabados still out of the net, Vetter made her first mistake of the game, bobbling a centring pass/shot by Canada’s Rebecca Johnston which Poulin pounced on like a cobra and snapped in for the tying goal. Canada, which hadn’t scored a goal in almost 57 minutes, now had two in two and a half minutes.

And then things hit their craziest.

Let’s take a deep breath.

It started when British referee Joy Tottman, who’d been far too visible in the game from the start, whistled for a penalty in a scrum around Szabados. The Americans, whose second goal by Alex Carpenter had come on a third period power play, enjoyed exactly six seconds with the player advantage before Jocelyne Lamoureux was sent off for digging at a puck in Szabados’s pad. With the two teams now playing three-on-three, American’s Hilary Knight, who might have been the best player in the tournament, misfired in the Canadian end and suddenly, Wickenheiser had a breakaway.

Or so it seemed. Knight was closing in on the great veteran at the American blueline when Wickenheiser, depending on your point of view, was either pulled down or went down. Either way, Trottman’s arm went up for what was presumably a penalty shot which, after some deliberation, became a minor to Knight.

“I didn’t touch her,” said Knight. “She fell. It was a bogus call. But we had plenty of opportunities to put the puck in the net. It’s not necessarily on the refs.”

“She hauled me down,” said Wickenheiser. “I think it was a penalty shot in any other league. I had a pretty clear lane to the net.”

No matter. Just 39 seconds after Knight was sent off, Poulin teed up a rolling puck from Laura Fortino which sat flat at exactly the minute she shot. Vetter was beaten cleanly as the Canadians performed the dogpile of joy in the corner of the rink while the Americans looked on, stunned.

“Our heads were up,” Bellamy said of the American mindset going into overtime. “We said we’ve got this. We’re great four-on-four. We’ll use our speed. It was all positive thoughts.”

“You train your whole life for this game and we just couldn’t hold on again,” said American defenceman Megan Bozek.

Again, like Salt Lake in ’02, like Vancouver in 2010 and, now Sochi. The Americans it seems, would like to be more than foil for Canada’s greatness somewhere along the line.

“I think this team is built for pressure,” said Szabados, the better goalie in this game which, ultimately was the difference on this night. “That’s four in a row now. I think the more pressure that’s on this team the better we play.”

“I think we understand pressure,” said Wickenheiser. “We understand the moment and how to deal with the big games. We had nine young players and if you’re afraid look to somebody who isn’t’. They’ll give you the courage to make the play and keep your feet moving. That’s exactly what we had.”

She was asked what she said to her teammates in the locker room before overtime.

“Get some carbs in you girls because this is our apex mountain,” she said. “We climb that thing on our bikes in the summer and it’s so hard mentally and physically.

“We thought as a team we had an edge in conditioning and mental toughness. We believed in that.”

Was that really the difference? Maybe. Or maybe it came down to the six inches between that puck hitting the post or going into the empty Canadian net. Or maybe it was kind bounce off Bellamy that started the rally. Or maybe it was the call on Lamoureux. it’s hard to say.

What’s clear, however, in this games between these two blood rivals, the bounces always seem to go Canada’s way. Julie Chu, the great American veteran, has taken part in the last four Olympic tournaments and has never won a gold medal.

Wickenheiser has won four over that same period.

With in 4 weeks if today 

 i read an article titled Canada beats USA in overtime for Olympic women’s hockey gold in game for the ages.  It can be found here:

http://www.canada.com/olympics/news/canada-usa-women-hockey-final-91950

I enjoyed this article because i lived in Canada Vancouver  just for one month and i had fun playing hockey with my canadian friends. This makes me feel delighted and thrilled that Canada received a gold medal for the hockey and makes me feel to visit Canada again. I wonder what  canada 's medal standings would be.