Close calls

Team USA laments near-misses on scoring chances

Karen Bye and Team USA had hoped for better than silver. AP

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (AP) -- Katie King will remember the time she and a teammate collided, wasting an empty-net scoring chance. Tara Mounsey will think about the shot that went an inch wide. And Angela Ruggiero will probably hear the ping of the post for a long time.

Those near-misses are what the U.S. women's hockey believes kept them from an Olympic gold medal -- not overconfidence, pressure or other breakdowns.

The Americans lost the championship game 3-2 to Canada on Thursday, ending a 35-game winning streak that included eight wins over the Canadians.

"It all goes away after tonight," Mounsey said.

The silver medal wasn't enough of a consolation for the team that won the first Olympic medal in women's hockey four years ago.

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"We had our chances and it just didn't happen," King said. "They played great defense and things didn't go our way in the end."

Playing on home ice before a crowd that started chanting "U-S-A" more than 13 minutes before the game started added more emotion than energy. Just 1:45 into the game, the Americans were behind for the first time this Olympics when goalie Sara DeCosta failed to corral a shot and it went in off Canada's Caroline Oullette.

King tipped in a power-play goal early in the second period to tie it, but Canada's Hayley Wickenheiser answered quickly by driving in a long rebound while DeCosta was tangled up with defenseman Sue Merz. The Canadians went up 3-1 with one second left in the second period when a breakaway by Jayna Hefford hit DeCosta, flipped over her and went in.

Karen Bye got the U.S. within 3-2 on a power-play goal with 3:33 left, but the Americans didn't get another good shot.

"We just thought we were going to come back," Ruggiero said. "We've done that a lot this season and it instilled a lot of confidence. We never thought we were going to lose."

The Canadians came out playing rough, using their body more than the rules allow -- which is not at all. They received 13 penalties, putting the Americans on the power play for more than one-fourth of the game.

The U.S. team hardly did anything on the first four chances with an advantage, including 1:19 with a 5-on-3 advantage. They often kept passing in search of the perfect shot and wound up not getting it, or losing the puck before they could get set.

They did manage two power-play goals. But they needed at least three.

"It was frustrating at times," Mounsey said. "Our special teams didn't bring us to 4-3, but they kept us in the game. We needed some 5-on-5 breaks and didn't get any."

 

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