News

Did Team USA Beat Longtime Hockey Rival?

by Jenny Hollander

A heated rivalry between the American and Canadian women's ice hockey teams came to a climax Thursday, and the Canadian hockey team beat Team USA to gold — making the Canadian squad the second women's team to ever win four gold medals in four consecutive Winter Games. At just over halfway through the game, Team USA looked set for the win at 2-0. But in a shocking leap ahead, their Canadian rivals also scored two goals during the game's final ten minutes. At the 60-minute mark, both teams had scored two goals each, and the game went to overtime, when Canada scored a third and winning goal.

Since women's hockey became an official Olympic sport in 1998, either America or Canada have won at every single Winter Olympics. At the first game in 1998, the American team beat Canada — but our northern rivals were out for revenge, and claimed gold at the next three Olympics.

In the 2002 and 2010 Winter Games, the American and Canadian teams played one another, and Canada won each time. (In 2006, Canada beat Sweden to the gold instead.) Canada's last win was on home turf, at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.

There's only one other Olympic women's team that has won more than three consecutive medals: the U.S. women's basketball team, which picked up four between 1996 and 2012.