Word: nagano
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...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 in 2002 to take the gold at Salt Lake City, Utah. Neither team has lost an international game to any contender but the other. "The rivalry makes women's hockey what it is," says Canada stalwart Hayley Wickenheiser, who played for a Finnish...
...familial connections among the players: they know one another like sisters and fight like brothers. Canadians cross the border to play for NCAA schools; Americans go north to get experience with club teams. Four-time All-American Angela Ruggiero and Canadian forward Jennifer Botterill were teenage opponents at the Nagano Olympics and later roomed together as Harvard teammates. "You know every little thing," says U.S.A.'s Kelly Stephens of Seattle, Washington. The father of Canada defenseman Delaney Collins was principal of the high school Stephens attended in British Columbia. "You get to know the players, you get to know...
...game exhibition series preceding the Nagano Olympics seeded the hostilities. In one game, Granato and Wickenheiser engaged in a high-sticking duel. Then Wickenheiser and Ruggiero squared off to fight. By the time the teams reached Nagano, tension had reached Mount Fuji heights. In an 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...
...What's next? Before the 2002 Games, Team U.S.A. leaned on veterans from Nagano, and the squad spent five months playing together. This time around, Smith, no sentimentalist, cut vets Shelley Looney and Granato after the 2005 tryout camp. "In the past six or eight years, we had the same faces," says Smith. "The team now is the future...
...Ruggiero progresses in her story, which takes her from a gritty upbringing in Southern California to prestigious schools in the east, to Olympiads in Nagano and Salt Lake City, and on to a role as humanitarian and ambassador of her sport around the world, she is careful to show how she has matured as both a player and a person...