U.S. women's hockey player Patricia Dunn celebrates her goal while Canadian team members can only stand and watch during the third period of their game. The U.S. team won 7-4. ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO/ASSOCIATED PRESS

U.S. women's hockey team rallies to defeat Canada 7-4

Web posted February 15, 1998

By Dennis Sodomka
Staff Writer

NAGANO, Japan - The U.S. and Canada women played a hockey game on Valentine's Day but instead of exchanging hearts and flowers, elbows, sticks and crashing bodies were being tossed around like candy.

The game, won by the United States 7-4, meant nothing to the Olympic hockey standings because these same two teams will meet for the gold medal Tuesday night. But it added an extra helping of spice to the feud that has been simmering between the two best women's hockey teams in the world.

``The game was played out of control,'' said Canada's coach Shannon Miller. ``There's no question about it, they tried to intimidate us.''

``Of course she thought it was out of control,'' said U.S. coach Ben Smith later. ``We scored six straight goals in the third period.''

The Americans fell behind 4-1 early in the third period and everyone in the building except the U.S. team thought the game was over. Canada had scored two goals in the span of 25 seconds, both on power plays.

Slightly more than a minute after Canada's last goal, Laurie Baker put the United States back in the hunt with the first of her two goals. Within six minutes they added three more goals. The last two goals came at the end of the game.

The Canadians, who had looked so poised and smooth earlier, looked stunned and angry.

``I wasn't surprised,'' said captain Cammi Granato, who also scored two goals. ``It shows our team has a lot of character. We get one goal, and another goal and another goal and all of a sudden ... Laurie's goal was important because we feed off each other.''

The two teams have split the 14 games they've played since last summer. The last time will be for the gold medal and it should be a head-knocker. The rivalry has spawned some intense emotions that almost boiled over Saturday.

``There is an intense dislike, and intense rivalry,'' said Miller. ``But hate is too strong a word in sports. We have had intensely competitive games. Tonight undoubtedly was the most physical one we've had.''

There were 20 penalties for 48 minutes in the game. Seven of the first eight goals were scored on power plays, so both teams are thinking about what that means in the championship game.

``They had four power play goals so we don't want to give up a lot of penalties,'' said Granato.

``We're not backing down,'' said Jennifer Schmidgall. ``There will be a lot more heat, but we'll be under control.''

``I expect that the intensity will fire up again,'' said Smith. ``There's a turf war going on out there.''