Golden opportunity

DeCosta to start gold medal game against Canada

MURRAY, Utah (AP) -- Four years after she was bumped from the goalie rotation before the Olympic gold medal game in Nagano, Sara DeCosta will get her chance to face Canada in the final.

U.S. coach Ben Smith said he will continue alternating his goaltenders, meaning it's DeCosta's turn when the Americans defend their Olympic gold on Thursday.

"She's played well all year, as has Sarah Tueting," Smith said after practice on Wednesday. "I don't think anyone's missed a step, so I just thought I'd continue along."

Neither goalie would talk to reporters after the team's closed practice. But if Tueting wants to know how to handle her disappointment, she need look no farther than DeCosta, who watched from the bench when Tueting beat Canada 3-1 to with the gold medal in 1998.

"All I can do is be ready," Tueting said after arriving in Salt Lake City. "I didn't train for three years to ride the pine. But if Sara plays, I'll be 100 percent behind her, like she was for me in '98. I know what being a good teammate is. I know if Sara plays, we have a good chance of winning."

In Nagano, Smith would coyly answer, "Sara" -- or maybe "Sarah" -- when asked who his goaltender would be for the gold medal game. In the final preliminary of the 1998 games, he played both goalies, then went with Tueting for the gold medal game.

But when the issue came up after United States won the semifinal on Tuesday, Smith said, "I rotate my goalies."

With that, DeCosta got the first official word that she would start. Asked Wednesday if he made an announcement to the team or pulled the goalies aside, Smith said, "They're big girls. They can count."

They're also close friends, sharing a love for pineapple pizza and an offbeat sense of humor their teammates say is typical of goalies. So its unlikely DeCosta did much celebrating in front of Tueting.

"Sarah's a great goalie and she's helped me so much," DeCosta said last week. "We have a goalie coach in Lake Placid, but on tour, it's just she and I."

A hot goalie can dominate a game and make up for whatever mistakes her teammates make; no one in this rivalry needs to be reminded of that. At the 2001 world championships, the Americans felt they outplayed Canada only to run into the brick wall of Kim St-Pierre.

"Goaltending is our strength," Canadian forward Hayley Wickenheiser said. "She's kept us in a lot of games this year."

And so have the American goalies.

"They have two goaltenders who could be No. 1," said Canadian coach Daniele Sauvageau, who has 12 silver medalists from '98 back for another try.

Since their loss in the world championships, the United States has won eight consecutive exhibitions against Canada while racking up a 35-game winning streak. But if there's one thing both teams can agree on, it's that those games don't mean much now.

"Everything up to now is in the past," U.S. forward Tricia Dunn said. "If we think because we're 8-0 and going to walk all over them, that would be foolish of us. We've got to play our best game."

The gold medal matchup of the United States and Canada was not tough to predict. Neither has ever lost to anyone except each other, and they waltzed into the medal round without a real scare.

Finland did take a short-lived lead in its semifinal before Canada scored five third-period goals to win 7-3. The U.S. women have never trailed in Salt Lake City, and the only goal against them was a fluke from the center line that caught Tueting napping.

Combined, the North Americans outscored their opponents 63-4 to set up a repeat of the Nagano gold medal game and the finals of every world championship every played. Canada has won the worlds seven times, but the United States took the gold in the '98 Olympics.

"We've won everything except for the Olympics," Wickenheiser said. "That's the missing piece."

Being the underdog is a strange position for Canada, which has really lost only one meaningful game in the history of the sport. But the players like the fact that the pressure is on the Americans, the defending champions playing at home.

"I like our position," defenseman Therese Brisson said. "I'd rather be the hunter than the hunted."

 

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