Sweden stuns US women in shootout
TURIN -- Of all the rink joints in all the towns in all the world, Sweden had to walk into this one.
Inevitably, it was going to happen. Somewhere. Be it in some anonymous tournament tucked away in, say, a remote corner of the Pacific Rim, or perhaps 12 miles north, three left turns, and four potholes out of Yellowknife, NWT. One day, someone was going to crash the women's hockey party that forever was exclusively a Canadian-American invitation list.
Well, it finally happened here last night inside Palasport Olimpico, shortly after 7:30 p.m. when Sweden finished off Team USA, 3-2, in an overtime shootout that derailed the expected grudge-match Olympic gold medal final between the Yanks and Canadians. Instead, Team Canada, after last night's 6-0 win over Finland, now will face the sisters of the Three Crowns for the gold Monday night.
The Yanks, who had never lost to anyone other than Canada on the world's stage, will face the Finns for the bronze.
''It sucks to lose," said US forward Jenny Potter, the second of four red-white-and-blue shooters who failed to put a puck by sensational netminder Kim Martin in the shootout. ''That's just the way it is."
Eight years earlier, in the first women's Olympic tournament, the Yanks left Nagano with the gold, rubbing out the heavily favored Canadians in the final. Payback came only one quadrennium later when the Canadians dumped the Yanks in their own digs at Salt Lake City. And here they were again, all but joined at the skates, in lockstep for gold and glory. Until Sweden's Maria Rooth, Erika Holst, and Martin joined hands and altered the world's order of the women's game.
''It's the first time I've watched a girls' game," said ex-Bruin Mats Naslund, here as manager of the Swedish men's team. ''After the first five minutes I figured we had no chance. There's a big difference between our best players, and the ones who aren't so good -- we have only five or six players who are really good, starting with the goaltender."
Truth is, if not for Martin's superlative puckstopping, including a total of 37 saves, the Swedes would have been dispatched to the bronze game by midway through the second period. Kristin King potted the 1-0 American lead at 11:55, connecting on a power play, and then the Yanks bumped it up to 2-0 only 64 seconds into the second when Kelly Stephens, parked above the crease, tipped home a slapper.
''No way were we looking ahead to Monday," said US defenseman Lyndsay Wall, discounting any theories that the Yanks took the Swedes lightly. ''We knew they were good."
The Yanks, though, once more began to show some of the frustrating traits that dogged them even during victories in the qualifying round. For all their shots, many of them good opportunities, they couldn't provide the important finishing touch around the net. They took some needless penalties. To make matters worse, not only were they unable to convert power-play chances, they also were often careless in their own end, leading to a couple of prime shorthanded opportunities for the Swedes -- one of them finally converted for the goal that made it 2-2.
Rooth knocked home the first goal with 6:17 gone in the second, set up by some fine rearboard forechecking by linemate Emilie O Konor. Some 10 feet off the left post, and dealing with a near-impossible shooting angle, Rooth twirled around along the goal line and zipped a surprise backhander by US goalie Chanda Gunn.
Just over three minutes later, at 9:40, Rooth was back for seconds. With the Yanks on a power play, she zipped into the slot and converted a 20-footer after Holst plucked the puck off the boards behind Gunn. The US was about to rush the puck up, in hopes of moving to the 3-1 lead, and instead they were dead even on the scoreboard. Soon, they'd be dead on double runners.
''I don't even want to use the word," said Ben Smith, coach of the US women's team dating back before the '98 Games. ''But we were snakebit. I hate to say that, because it sounds like an excuse, but . . ."
Finishing touch around the net indeed takes some luck, and the Yanks had little of that. Overall, it was some bad luck and a lot of Martin, along with a conservative Swedish defensive mode, that frustrated the US shooters time and time again.
The peak of the frustration came in the minutes immediately following the Swedes' tying goal. In very short order, the likes of Jenny Lindqvist (12:08), Emma Eliasson (12:45), and Gunilla Andersson (13:51) were all dispatched to the penalty box for minor infractions. But for the Yanks, it was too much advantage, too little scoring. The best of the chances came at 15:43 when team captain Krissy Wendell fired from the slot, and Martin responded with a near-casual block for her 23d stop of the night.
''Obviously, that's very frustrating on 5-on-3 there," said US forward Natalie Darwitz. ''The opportunity was there, and we didn't score. You're thinking, 'OK, OK, it's got to come sometime . . .' But it didn't. Then it gets to the shootout, and they capitalized, and we didn't."
In the 10-minute OT leading up to the best-of-five shootout, the Yanks were still dominant, reflected in the 8-3 shot advantage. But shootouts are nearly tantamount to coin flips, and on a night when luck definitely wasn't siding with the Yanks, the failed opportunities of earlier in the night soon would be replaying over in their minds -- over and over.
Neither of the first two shooters on each side could connect, including Darwitz and Potter for the Yanks and Holst and Nanna Jansson for the Swedes. Angela Ruggiero, the third American shooter, missed with one attempt, but was awarded a do-over when it was ruled Martin made a false move -- advancing out of her crease prior to Ruggiero's break-in. On her second attempt, Ruggiero appeared to have a sure goal on a wide-open right side, but lost control of the puck and saw her attempt dribble wide.
''The ice was pretty bad," said Ruggiero, noting that the ice isn't given a dry scrape prior to the shootout, something that has been adopted as standard practice in the NHL. ''I thought I had it, but I lost the puck."
Seconds later, Pernilla Winberg (could a name be more prophetic?) swept in on her free chance and knocked one by Gunn. Wendell, next up for the Stars 'n Stripes, cut to a wide angle on the right wing, swept across the slot to get Martin to shift feet and weight, and then failed with a forehander near the left post.
It was then left in Rooth's hands, and the ex-Minnesota-Duluth star ended it with a sweet shot just inside the left post, about 6 inches high.
The Swedish bench emptied, the Three Crown sorority rejoicing with the verve and excitement that the underdog American men displayed in Lake Placid 26 years earlier. Martin, flat on her back, soon had Holst straddled over, the exuberant forward clutching the goalie's sweater with both hands, lifting her up until their facemasks clinked like champagne glasses. Later, Swedish superstars Mats Sundin and Peter Forsberg exchanged high-fives with their sister skaters.
''My players have watched 'Miracle' over and over," said Swedish coach Peter Elander, referring to the cinematic version of the '80 US men's team that Herb Brooks coached to gold. ''So skating is not a problem with our hockey club."
''Miracle's" particular inspiration, said Elander, was its depiction of the notorious ''Again" drill, in which a frustrated Brooks skated his squad to near total exhaustion. The drill didn't end until team captain Mike Eruzione, on legs turned to rubber, finally provided the correct answer. For whom did his players play? They played for the USA.
The Swedes, said Elander, know the ''Again" drill by heart.
''We've done that the last three months," he said, before summoning the remark Brooks made famous, ''So the legs feed the wolf."
Only here, on this night, on this food chain, the prey was the USA.
The world has been waiting for the day when it wouldn't be a two-team tournament. In fact, four years ago, reports had the Swedish Olympic Committee eager to scrap women's hockey, the scores too lopsided, the country not getting much bang for its krona.
''They picked a hell of a time here," lamented a crestfallen Darwitz, ''and we didn't."
