Canada proved its dominance at the Sochi Winter Olympics 2014 in ice hockey. On February 20, 2014, the Canadian women’s hockey team took a 3-2 victory over the United States in overtime. Then, on February 23, 2014, the Canadian men took the victory over Sweden 3-0 to bring home that gold as well.
Canada may have had an easy day on Sunday even though they were the favored team going into the Olympics. Canada has won three of the last four Winter Olympic gold medals. In winning the gold, Jonathan Toews, Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz all scored for Canada.
The Sweden team had more than their share of problems with Henrik Sedin and Hentrick Zetterbeg both being out with injuries. In addition, Sweden’s chances were further hurt when Nicklas Backstrom failed the drug test. Sweden’s official line is that Backstrom took an allergy medicine containing an illegal substance. The team was no match for Canada’s speedy forwards and aggressive defense.
The women’s game was much more closely contested. During the overtime period in the women’s game, three controversial penalties was called. After the game, America’s women’s coach Katey Stone said, I think officiating is no different than developing players and programs,” she said. “The game is growing in leaps and bounds. The pace of the game is tremendous. We have to make sure that every part of the game operation and game management is developing at as fast a rate as it possibly can.” In many respects, it was a game that America should have won with being ahead 2-0 with less than four minutes remaining in the game.
While many women hope that the National Hockey League will someday soon allow women to play, that is not in the immediate future. Therefore, America’s top player Kelli Stack is headed to Sweden to play.