U.S. Olympic women's hockey goalie Sarah Tueting jubilates with a U.S. flag during the team's gold medal victory over Team Canada at Big Hat arena, Tuesday.AP/Hans Deryk

Women score gold

Web posted February 18, 1998

By Dennis Sodomka
Morris News Service

NAGANO - The newest miracle on ice team earned a gold medal Tuesday when the U.S. women's team beat Canada 3-1 Tuesday.

The Americans rode a controlled offense and nearly perfect goaltending to upset the four-time defending world champions. After it was over, after a seven-month quest in which the U.S. team has molded itself into the powerhouse of world hockey, the emotions overflowed.

Waving flags, hugging on the ice and jumping and waving to the crowd after the game, the U.S. women celebrated wildly. Hours after the game they were all wearing huge smiles and their gold medalls.

"We came out so strong,'' said winning goaltender Sarah Tueting, who had 21 saves. "I would have loved a shutout, oooooh, but how can you complain with this around your neck," she said, pointing to her gold medal.

"It was a tight game right to the end, a physical game,'' said Gretchen Ulion, who opened the scoring with a power play goal in the second period. "Beat Canada the other night really felt great. It really got our team going. We started to believe it could happen. We worked so hard. Right now I'm in disbelief.''

The win was the most important game for U.S. hockey since 1980's "Miracle on Ice" that brought the last Olympic hockey medal to the United States. Most of the women on this team were toddlers when the U.S. men won the gold over a powerhouse Russian team. But they all have heard about it.

Some members of that team even wished the American women good luck before the game.

"Before the game Coach (Ben) Smith handed me an envelope,'' said Karyn Bye, one of the team's top scorers, who wears uniform No. 6. "It was a good luck fax from Bill Baker, No. 6 on the 1980 team.

"It said, 'Good luck. I'll be watching you. Bring home the gold.' I guess he heard that when I was a kid playing hockey in the basement I used to pretend I was Bill Baker.

"This medal means more to me than anything. I'm just shaking right now. I had two goals in my life. One was to make the Olympic hockey team and the other was to win a gold medal. I was standing next to Cammi (Granato, captain of the team) when they said here is the first gold medal and put it around her neck. I started crying.''

The emotions after the game were in sharp contrast to the tightly controlled game played by both teams. It was much different than the wild 7-4 game won by the United States three days ago.

After a scoreless first period in which Tueting made several unbelievable saves, the U.S. team drew first blood with Ulion's poke in from the corner of the goal mouth. She was set up with two slick passes from Sandra Whyte and Sue Merz.

That was the only score until halfway through the final period when Shelley Looney tipped in a shot from the blue line. Whyte and Ulion picked up the assists.

Just when it looked like the U.S. would ride out the rest of the game easily Danielle Goyette, the star of Canada, scored nine seconds into a power play when the U.S. got sloppy with the puck behind their own net. The goal with 4:01 left in the game set up a wild finish, with Canada rushing down the ice, putting pressure on the U.S. defense.

With 1:05 left in the game Nancy Drolet came wheeling down the left side and got behind the defense. She fired low and Tueting threw her leg out for the game-winning save.

"Usually I can feel the puck hit my pad,'' said Tueting. "I remember her winding up to shoot, but I didn't feel it. I thought 'Oh, no,' but then I saw it bounce away.''

When Canada pulled it's goaltender for the last 54 seconds to put an extra attacker on the ice, the Whyte intercepted a pass and flicked in an empty-net goal with eight seconds left in the game.