Peters: Poulin, Nurse lead Canada to fifth Olympic gold medal in win over USA
Four years after the United States claimed victory by the slimmest of margins in the 2018 Olympics, Canada left little doubt on their way to gold in Beijing even if there were a few tense minutes late.
Canada finished off their golden run with a 3-2 victory over the U.S., fueled by the most consistent championship performer in the sport today – Marie-Philip Poulin – and the record-setting Sarah Nurse. The victory capped off a historic tournament where Team Canada looked more like a red Maple Leaf-clad steamroller that mowed down every team in its path on a run for the ages at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games.
In the sixth gold-medal game meeting between these two hockey powers, the game was decided by just one goal for the fourth time. Not much has separated these two teams in the last few decades, but Canada’s edge in the Olympic gold medal count now improves to 5-2.
The Canadians weathered an early onslaught from Team USA that included Hannah Brandt hitting the post on a wide-open look early on. Canada really poured it on from there. They had a Natalie Spooner goal called back because of offside, but Canada merely shrugged and scored very shortly after the disallowed goal as Nurse redirected a Claire Thompson shot to make it 1-0.
No player, however, has been as consistent in a championship game than Poulin, Canada’s Captain Clutch. She scored a goal on a shot from distance that handcuffed U.S. goalie Alex Cavallini, making her the first Olympian, man or woman, to score a goal in four gold-medal games at the Olympics. And she wasn’t done yet.
Poulin kept the scoring going in the second period when she finished off a rush from a tough angle, shooting a puck off of Cavalini’s skate and in to make it 3-0 and give her seven career goals in Olympic gold-medal games.
Also on that goal, Nurse recorded a secondary assist that allowed her to break Hayley Wickenheiser’s record for most points in a single tournament. It was Nurse’s 18th point, surpassing the Hockey Hall of Famer who had 17 points at the 2006 Winter Olympics. Meanwhile, Poulin’s goal helped her tie Wickenheiser on the single-tournament scoring list.
The game felt over in that instant, but in this rivalry, things never end quite that quickly or quietly.
Hilary Knight, who became the United States’ all-time leader in Olympic games played, finally answered for Team USA late in the second period with a shorthanded goal, slamming home her own rebound on a rush.
That goal gave the Americans life and they played the third period with the desperation they seemed to lack earlier in the game. It led to more possession and scoring chances, but Canada netminder Ann Renée Desbiens was tremendous, making a lot of saves under pressure and not allowing rebounds. She also made a key save where she got just a piece of a Megan Keller shot with her shoulder that helped keep Canada’s advantage late in the third.
The Americans did get one goal back as Amanda Kessel scored with 13.5 seconds remaining to give them one last gasp, but the early three-goal deficit Team USA found itself in proved too tall to climb out of as Canada celebrated its fifth gold medal in seven Olympic games.
Brianne Jenner, who scored a tournament-best nine goals at the Olympics, was named the most valuable player. Marie-Philip Poulin, Claire Thompson and Sarah Nurse were the other Canadians who made the tournament all-star team. They were joined by Finland’s Jenni Hiirikoski on defense and Czechia goaltender Klara Peslarova.
In the bronze-medal game played the previous day, Finland earned its fourth third-place finish by beating Switzerland 4-0.
Let’s get to the analysis of the final.
Canada’s team will go down as one of the best ever
The Olympic history books were almost completely rewritten by this Canadian team. As a group, they scored a record 57 goals and allowed just 10. An average of eight goals per game is staggering. For further context, the U.S., which had all the common opponents with Canada save for one, averaged 4.2 goals per game.
Meanwhile, Team Canada’s scoring attack included Sarah Nurse who became the first black woman to win a gold medal in hockey at the Winter Olympics. But she also broke Hayley Wickenheiser’s all-time points record for a single tournament, a record that stood for 16 years even as the Canada and U.S. continued to push the standard for women’s hockey across the world. Nurse’s point total included 13 assists, also a single-tournament record.
Poulin finished one point behind Nurse, tying Wickenheiser for the second most points in a single tournament. Poulin now has seven career goals over her four gold medal games. I can’t even wrap my head around that stat. She is going to be a first ballot Hockey Hall of Famer whenever she decides to hang them up, but when you’re still the best player in the world, what’s the rush?
You also can’t talk about this team’s success without recognizing Desbiens. She had 51 saves in the preliminary-round victory over the U.S. and had a much more difficult job in the gold-medal game, especially in the third period when the U.S. directed 16 shots on net. She finished the final with 38 saves and will finish the Olympics with a .940 save percentage.
Canada had seven players finish the tournament with double-digit points. That included Jenner who tied the single-tournament record with nine goals and Olympic rookie Sarah Fillier who scored eight. Defender Claire Thompson closed out the Olympics with a plus-28 rating and every single position player on Canada’s roster had at least one point.
This team will go down as one of the best ever on paper and to the eye test as well. They were fast, they were skilled, they were strong and now they are Olympic champions.
USA’s push came too late
The Americans came out with a ton of shots early in the game and if Hannah Brandt’s shot found the open net instead of the post in the opening minutes of the game, it may have changed the trajectory. But that’s hockey and that puck was rolling on Brandt, so it wasn’t a simple tap in.
However, once Canada got their game going, it was impossible for the U.S. to slow it down. Team USA led the shots on goal in every period, but it was Canada getting the quality chances and finishing them. Team USA’s inability to get inside presence at the net front through two periods was costly.
The third period, however, was where the Americans amounted their desperate comeback bid. Propelled by Hilary Knight’s late second period goal, the U.S. dictated the pace and got more pucks to the middle in the third. They finished with 16 shots in the period, but they were essentially in chip-away mode as that 3-0 deficit was going to take a lot to come back from.
Desbiens made it all the more difficult with her ability to fight through traffic and her team in front of her diving in front of shots, collapsing down low and clearing rebounds.
Kessel’s late goal on a power play with the extra-attacker out gave a brief spark of hope, but that dwindled as soon as the American players looked at the clock to see under 15 seconds remaining. It was a valiant effort, but that desperation was needed a whole lot earlier than it got there.
That game didn’t get truly interesting until the third because even if the shot count says otherwise, Canada dominated the opening 40 minutes.
Depth a difference-maker
If there’s one thing that was clear, Canada had the depth to outlast their opposition. The Americans had lost several core players from the last Olympics and lost Brianna Decker to injury earlier in the tournament and it showed more dramatically than any game previous to the final.
Canada, meanwhile, was able to play almost their entire lineup. They rolled their top three lines fairly evenly, got regular shifts to their top six blueliners and were able to get some of their depth forwards spot shifts. Renata Fast was the only player that played more than 23 minutes on the roster. When you can stretch your bench like that, it allows you to get deeper into the game with your top players a lot fresher.
On the other side, the U.S. leaned heavily on its experienced players. They basically only rolled two lines and four defenders throughout the game. They had seven players under 10 minutes of ice time.
Megan Keller played 11:11 of the third period alone and finished the game with 29:17 of ice time, while Cayla Barnes had 28:52 of ice time. That’s a lot of ice for your top two defenders in a game against one of the most offensively gifted teams we’ve seen in this tournament’s history. Meanwhile, the top forward line of Hannah Brandt, Hilary Knight and Kendall Coyne Schofield all had 23 or more minutes of ice time, while their second forward line of Abby Roque, Alex Carpenter and Amanda Kessel played more than 21 minutes apiece.
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen such an imbalance between top six and bottom six on one team in a regulation game like this. The question also becomes, was there really a depth issue or did the U.S. coaching staff just not utilize their bench efficiently enough? On top of that, if the coach doesn’t or can’t trust the dept of the lineup, that creates a ton more questions about the construction of the roster.
Another area that really separated the two teams was faceoffs. Over a long period of time, faceoffs might not mean a ton, but in single-game situations it can mean a lot. Canada dominated the faceoff dot, winning 65% of the 60 faceoffs in the game.
Unsurprisingly, this was another element of the game completely dominated by Poulin as she won 74% of her 23 faceoffs, one of which directly led to Nurse’s goal. The U.S. always seemed to have to start on their back foot after a draw.
Final thoughts
It’s been a long couple of years for women’s hockey as we all try to figure out how to navigate the pandemic. While other leagues and tournaments have found ways to press on, the women saw one World Championship cancelled and another significantly delayed. This Olympic cycle was not ideal for anyone as neither the U.S. or Canada, which both centralize before the Olympics, were able to have a complete pre-Olympic tour and build-up.
That’s part of what makes Canada’s rise and dominance during this tournament so remarkable. Nothing was normal and they were coming off of that bitter defeat in 2018, but they still found a way to grow into the best team in the world again.
While the U.S. did manage to make this game interesting late, there’s no doubt Canada was the better of the two teams. They looked that way on paper coming into the game and they confirmed it with the scoreboard later.
This tournament will be remembered for the weirdness of being in China in the middle of a pandemic with limited fans and everything else, but it also could be a galvanizing moment for women’s hockey on the world stage. This was the first Winter Olympics with 10 teams in the women’s tournament. Every single team won at least one game including Denmark, which was playing in its first ever Olympics in both men’s and women’s hockey this year.
There are a lot of programs that are going to come out of this tournament with some hope and some new goals to set after achieving some big ones in Beijing. It’s going to be up to the federations to support and foster the development in such a way that one day the gap will narrow between the two North American teams and the rest of the world, but strides have been made in the 24 years since women’s hockey became an Olympic sport.
Where things go from here remain to be seen. There is so much uncertainty in terms of the future of professional women’s hockey and just how tournaments will be scheduled amid a pandemic. While we can’t know exactly what comes next, we do no one thing about the rest of the women’s hockey world – they’re all back to chasing Canada.