WinterSports2002.com, Wednesday, February 20, 2002

Undefeated Americans

By Zack Van Eyck Deseret News Olympic specialist

WEST VALLEY CITY — Believe it or not, the U.S. women's ice hockey team doesn't want to blow out every country it plays.

Coach Ben Smith half-joked recently that he'd like to win each game by a 45-0 margin. But at the same time, he has been hoping a team other than Canada would rise up and give his undefeated squad a genuine challenge. How else, he reasons, are the defending Olympic gold medalists going to improve?

With Canada looming as Thursday's gold-medal opponent, Tuesday's semifinal was a perfect time for the Americans to face a tough test. And that's exactly what they got from fourth-seeded Sweden — not enough to spoil the expected showdown between the two favorites, but a rigorous workout that left Smith's crew feeling primed and ready to play the Canadians.

Team captain Cammi Granato scored a pair of goals and added an assist as Team USA eventually wore down a defensive-minded Swedish squad and its athletic 15-year-old goaltender for a 4-0 victory at the E Center.

Natalie Darwitz and Katie King added goals while Krissy Wendell and defenseman Tara Mounsey had two assists apiece. The Americans (4-0) were held to just 32 shots on goal, their lowest total of the tournament, by the determined Swedes (2-2).

"They played as strong a game against us as we've seen this season," Smith said. "Our team felt we were right on the verge of being where we've been trying to get, and I think the Swedish team felt they had a chance of a lifetime, too. So you saw two teams playing a real hard game.

"We've been preparing for hard games. We practice hard. We play hard. We try to go right to the limit of our physical fitness, and today was one of those games."

Swedish coach Christian Yngve called it one of the best defensive games his team has played this year but said he thinks the United States could have kicked it up a notch if the outcome had been more in doubt. The Americans undoubtedly will give it all they've got in the gold-medal game Thursday at 5 p.m. at the E Center.

"We've got 48 hours to rest up and bring it on," said Chris Bailey, a forward who played some defense Tuesday in part because teammate Lyndsay Wall was battling the flu. "We're really excited. We can't wait to get it going."

It took a while for Team USA to do that Tuesday night. The game was scoreless for 17 minutes until Granato, lying on her stomach, punched in a rebound like a pool shark sinking an eight ball in the corner pocket.

"I'm not a very good pool player, but I actually was happy to see that one go in," said Granato, one of up to 13 women on the 20-player roster who may play her last game in a Team USA uniform Thursday. "I knew the puck was coming to the net because Tara Mounsey was taking a shot, and I just tried to get my stick on it. It was nice to get a goal like that."

King followed with her goal on a breakaway two minutes later for a 2-0 lead at the end of the first period. Granato scored the only goal of the second period, stuffing the puck in the net after a shot slid behind Martin in the crease.

"Personally, I felt it took me a little while to get into the game," Granato said. "We didn't seem to have that jump. You have to give Sweden a lot of credit, too. They really played physical. We started to get shots to the net, but they were blocking them in the slot. We weren't too happy with how we were playing, but we got better as the game went on."

Martin, who shut out Kazakhstan in her only other Olympic game, was solid all night and her defensemen protected her well. But Sweden's conservative style limited its offense. The Swedes had just 10 shots on goal and never seriously threatened to put one past U.S. goalie Sarah Tueting.

"It was a good game from our side," Martin said. "We worked hard and gave a lot of heart out there. If we work this hard against Finland we will do very well against them."

Sweden will play Finland in the bronze medal game Thursday at noon in Provo's Peaks Ice Arena.

E-MAIL: zman@desnews.com

© 2002 Deseret News Publishing Company