What an NCAA rule change might mean for junior hockey in Sask.
Nov 18, 2024
Previously, WHL players were declared ineligible to play NCAA hockey in the U.S.
There’s something familiar about the women’s hockey gold-medal game at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
When the puck drops Wednesday at around 10:10 p.m. Saskatchewan time, Canada and the United States will continue one of the fiercest rivalries in sports.
This will be the seventh women’s hockey gold-medal game in Olympic history and Canada and the U.S. are meeting for the sixth time with gold on the line.
The Americans won the first Olympic final in 1998, downing Canada 3-1 in the Games in Nagano, Japan. The Canadians got their revenge in 2002 with a 3-2 victory in Salt Lake City.
In 2006 in Turin, Italy, Canada won the gold with a 4-1 victory over … Sweden. The Swedes beat the U.S. 3-2 in a shootout in a semifinal.
The North American rivals met again in the 2010 gold-medal game in Vancouver, where current Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin scored both goals in Canada’s 2-0 victory.
Poulin was key in the 2014 final in Sochi, Russia, as well. She scored the tying goal with 55 seconds left in regulation, then potted the game-winner on a power play at 8:10 of the first overtime period as Canada beat the U.S. 3-2.
But the Americans are the defending gold medallists, having beaten the Canadians 3-2 in a shootout in the final of the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Canada got the better of the U.S. in the round-robin in Beijing, winning 4-2. Poulin again was a factor, scoring the insurance goal on a short-handed penalty shot — the first goal on a penalty shot in the history of Olympic women’s hockey.
The teams haven’t just owned the podium at the Olympics.
Of the 20 world women’s hockey championships played so far, Canada has won 11 times (beating the Americans every time) and the U.S. has won nine times (defeating Canada eight times and Finland in 2019 after the Finns beat the Canadians 4-2 in a semifinal).
Poulin was the hero in the final at the 2021 world championship, scoring the overtime winner in Canada’s 3-2 victory over the Americans.
“(The rivalry) has changed and it continues to grow,” former Canadian captain Cassie Campbell-Pascall said on The Green Zone on Wednesday. “I hate to say the word ‘hate,’ but the hatred continues to grow.
“The interesting thing is, when I started back in ’94, we didn’t know each other. We never played college hockey with each other. We’d meet in an elevator at a hotel because we were all staying at the same place. But we really didn’t know each other and we didn’t like each other at all. Now, they go to college together and they know each other through playing in the leagues.
“What makes this rivalry so important is it’s probably the best rivalry in any sport of all sport, and I think it has built the foundation of women’s hockey and the growth of women’s hockey.”
Before heading to Beijing, Saskatoon’s Emily Clark was on The Green Zone and not surprisingly predicted the gold-medal matchup.
“I think it’s going to be exactly what’s expected, considering the past,” Clark said. “Obviously everything gets heightened when you’re playing on the same ice surface with the Olympic rings.”