The sport didn’t decide a medal, but it surely clearly nonetheless mattered.
The Canadian ladies’s hockey group edged the US’ 4-2 Tuesday within the preliminary spherical of the Olympics. It was the primary matchup between the 2 superpowers in Beijing, however possible is not going to be the final.
With group play completed, each international locations will land the highest two seeds, which is able to place them on reverse sides of the bracket and on a collision course for the ultimate — once more.
USA and Canada have clashed for the gold every of the final three Olympics, the newest received by the People in a shootout in Pyeongchang.
Canada struck first on this 12 months’s first version of the nice rivalry, and each side have confirmed a bronze would qualify as a catastrophe. Coming into the sport, USA and Canada had mixed to beat their different competitors 47-5 in six video games.
Each will see silver linings within the first tilt that really mattered: The Canadians received, however the People outplayed them.
The Pink, White and Blue dominated possession and outshot Canada 53-25, however didn’t get many lucky bounces. Canadian goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens completed with 51 saves (together with stopping the final 24 makes an attempt from Staff USA) and was the distinction within the recreation.
“We had quite a lot of offensive zone time and generated quite a lot of pictures. However pictures don’t win video games, targets do,” US head coach Joel Johnson instructed reporters, via ESPN. “We ended up on the flawed facet of the aim scoring.”
The People dug out of an early gap, and second-period targets from Dani Cameranesi (off a rebound) and Alex Carpenter (on a easy backhand) gave them a 2-1 lead that will show temporary.
Twenty-six seconds later, Canada’s Brianne Jenner responded together with her second aim to tie it, and the Canadians poured it on from there, scoring on three of 4 pictures and taking a 4-2 lead into the third interval.
The People had two energy performs within the closing interval — together with a 6-on-4 within the closing minutes, with the goalie pulled — however couldn’t discover the web. The People completed simply 1-for-6 on the facility play.
Too usually, they might not end. Happily for the People, this matchup in all probability shouldn’t be completed.
