two taps doom U.S. golden dreams

The Kid Delivers

The opening minutes of a USA-Canada Game, men or women, is a tension convention. Waiting for the first goal, which is often the death knell for the victim, is as riveting as it is uncomfortable. Think of a long tailed cat weaving through a room crowded with rocking chairs, or being a mother on an important phone call with a toddler climbing furniture. Maybe the most apt analogy is a room full of chain smokers inside a huge powder keg. When the puck is in your end, especially if you are an American seeking gold against Canada, BE CAREFUL, or the arms cache known as Canada Hockey Place will detonate.

The first period of the 2010 Women's Gold medal game is a tight affair, with all the tension a fan can tolerate. Hilary Knight bumps Canadian goalie Shannon Szabados, Haley Irwin amps it up by decking the helmetless Jocelyn Lamoureaux on her mandatory trip to the players bench. Neither act is called for a penalty. Darwitz throws a testing snap shot, Gina Kingsbury fires off the rush, and finally the irresistable force known as Haley Irwin forces USA's Lisa Chesson to hook her down--the Canucks are a man up. Hand sweat time. Suddenly there is a loose puck off a rebound and Marie-Philip Poulin pounces...you wait for the explosion. But veteran Angela Ruggiero, 12 years her elder, wills her stick to reach the puck a fraction of a second earlier, and the threat dissipates, temporarily.

Then USA's Knight draws a power play, which evolves into a 5 on 3, and the Yanks move the puck perfectly to set up Caitlin Cahow for a back door one-timer, except Cahow stops the puck before firing, and a grade-A chance becomes just another good save for Szabados.

Back to 5 on 5 hockey, inside the U.S. zone. Harvard trained Canadian Jenn Botterill muscles possession of the puck, and U.S. forwards Karen Thatcher and Erika Lawler both turn to watch her drive down the wall. Fatal. The sound they heard next will surely haunt them.  Two taps of the stick on the ice by Poulin. She had slipped into a gap in the slot, the sacred scoring slot, and was open and begging for the puck. Botterill, hungry for a fourth Olympic gold, delivered the disk. The sounds got louder: first Poulin's stick crashing down on ice and puck, propelling the biscuit into the back of the net, and a millisecond later, a roaring cacophony from 17,000 citizens of Canuckistan roaring in unison. Think 747 jet liner passing 10 feet overhead. The brilliant Poulin adds another later in the first, Szabados slams the door, Game, set, match.  USA's braintrust will spend years agonizing over the missing offense from absentees Krissy Wendell and Sarah Parsons as the Yanks are shut out in the GMG.

Thatcher and Lawler, usually the brightest smiles in the room, stumble through the mixed zone looking like they are choking on their own vomit. The sound of a tapping hockey stick will echo for 4 long years.