US women treat their bronze like precious medal

TURIN -- It's called progress.

We cannot have it both ways. We can't put down a sport such as women's hockey by saying that it's strictly a two-country affair and then go all finger-pointy when the United States loses to someone other than Canada. You think the rest of the world was going to accept this Canada-US female ice tyranny into perpetuity?

''There are still tiers in this sport," said US coach Ben Smith after his team won the bronze medal with a convincing 4-0 conquest of Finland. ''There is Canada and the USA, then draw a line. But Sweden and Finland have closed the gap. They have a much-improved fitness and skill level. If they get the big performance from the goaltender they can beat us."

Sweden got that big performance from goaltender Kim Martin Friday night. It brought its 'A' game and caught the US on sort of an in-between evening and came from 2-0 down to force a shootout, which it won. That's why Sweden played Canada for the gold last night and the US was forced to play for a bronze. Make no mistake. Were it best-of-seven, best-of-five, or even best-of-three, the smart money would have been on the US. But it wasn't. When you get to the medal round it's one game, win or else.

Ben's Kids could have gone one of two ways yesterday at the Palasport Olimpico. They could have wallowed in self-pity and anguish over losing out on the gold, or they could have acted like grown-ups, composed themselves, and brought their own 'A' game against Finland, thus ensuring the bronze.

They led, 3-0, after one and Katie King had a pure trucco del cappello (a hat trick, acknowledged by a lone baseball hat finding its way to the ice) some two minutes into the second period. Finland had very few good scoring chances. So you don't have to think too hard to figure out which way Team USA went.

''I came here to win the gold," said Angela Ruggiero, who starred at Harvard and just happens to be the best female defenseman this country ever has produced. ''But I am proud of my team. A lot of things in life don't work out the way you plan them. The last day or so, we just treated everything as if we were playing for the gold."

Ruggiero already has her gold. She was 18 and still a student at Choate-Rosemary Hall when she played a significant role for Team USA in Nagano. Four years later she earned a silver in Salt Lake City as Canada defeated the Americans for the gold. Now she's got a bronze. Like her coach, she is part of this, yes, progress.

I didn't say Ruggiero was happy. She is far too great a competitor to be pleased over what happened Friday. ''I was ready to play Canada [for the gold]," she said. ''Every time we play Canada I absolutely love it. I wish I could play them one time in this tournament."

I didn't say Smith was happy, either. ''We came here with the thought of winning the gold medal," he said. ''You get into the Olympic Games, you want to work your way into the finals, and you want to win."

A lot of people, of course, don't want to hear any of this. The US was supposed to at least get a silver, and since the US didn't, someone must be held accountable. And for most people that person is Smith, who made one decision last fall that surprised some people and angered others. I speak, of course, about L'Affaire Granato.

Smith did what he thought was the right thing when he cut from the team the very high-profile Cammy Granato, a cornerstone of Team USA for like, forever. People questioned this decision from Day 1, and when the US lost to Sweden, a whole lot of people had Cammy Granato on their minds, and that would include her husband, Ray Ferraro, a former NHL player who weighed in from the States.

No US women's hockey news conference is complete without the obligatory Granato query. ''Do you think you could have used Cammy Granato here?" Smith was asked last night.

''Ah, I don't think so," he replied, for the zillionth time.

''I guess I pretty much have to expect it," he said a while later.

Women's hockey in America will go forward. The question is what role Smith will play. His contract runs through the end of the summer, and he will be selecting an Under-22 team that surely will include a few of the players he had on this team. After that, who knows?

''I don't know quite what my role will be with USA Hockey in the future," he said. ''I have certainly enjoyed everything up until today. I have said many times that we need more women in this program. But I hope to continue in an advisory capacity or [as] an assistant of some kind."

With regard to the technical makeup of the team, he had this to say: ''In the big scheme of things, the only thing I would say is we should be looking for more speed."

''Youth and speed are things we should be thinking about," he said. ''Canada's game is getting up and down the ice, and I thought we were starting to match them the last three or four times we had played them. I thought we were seeing the fruits of our labor."

It was good to see the players relaxed and smiling. The Sweden loss had hit them hard. It was a classic case of coulda, shoulda, woulda. But it was clear the bad stuff was out of their system as they tore into the startled Finns from the first drop of the puck. They played their game, and they come home with a deserved medal.

''A lot of people on this team had no medal at all," reminded King, a three-time Olympian who made her final game one for the archives. ''That goes to show you that medals are hard to come by."

And they will get harder and harder to win. This female hockey toothpaste is not going back into the tube.

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is ryan@globe.com.