Word: medals
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What would be the best way to characterize the rivalry between the women's ice hockey teams of the U.S. and Canada, the only squads to ever win a gold medal? Spirited, perhaps, or impassioned. Those would be Olympian ways of putting it-and largely incorrect. "We dislike each other very much on the ice," says former U.S.A. star Cammi Granato. "There's no game I'd rather lace up the skates for. It's always an intense battle. Off ice, there's sort of a mutual respect. On ice, you're out for blood...
...Heading for an another inevitable gold-medal showdown at the 2006 Winter Olympics, Team Canada and Team U.S.A. are alone at the top of a women's sport struggling mightily to develop outside North America. They have contested the final of every significant international tournament since the International Ice Hockey Federation first sanctioned the women's world championships in 1990. Canada won eight consecutive world titles until Team U.S.A.'s 1-0 victory last April in Sweden, decided by an overtime shoot-out. The Americans captured the inaugural Winter Olympics tournament at Nagano, Japan, and Canada rebounded...
...otherwise meaningless first-round game, a flurry of illegal body checks-open-ice hitting is not allowed in the women's game-resulted in 48 penalty minutes. U.S.A. rallied from 1-4 in the third period for a 7-4 victory, setting the stage for its gold-medal upset...
...flag on their locker-room floor in a psych-up ceremony. "There was no validity" to the story, Granato says. "I was highly offended because as captain, I just wouldn't allow that to happen." But the damage had been done. The Canadians were frothing. And during the gold-medal final, U.S. referee Stacey Livingston dealt a lopsided number of penalties to Canada, which added to their fury. "The refereeing was atrocious," recalls Canadian captain Cassie Campbell. "But we expected it, and we were numb to it. The scoreboard clock could have fallen, and we were still going to skate...
...Even the wave herself knows that history becomes meaningless once the puck drops in the gold-medal round. "It comes down to one game, and any team can win that game," says Wickenheiser. "Even if we haven't seen their best, we know what they are capable of, and we fully respect that. We focus on ourselves, on our team, on playing our kind of hockey." Canadian-American hockey. Don't forget your mouth guards, ladies. You will need them...