Around the Ice: U.S. Women Bring Home Gold, Will Seattle be the Next NHL Expansion City?

US Women “Golden” again after 20 years plus the likelihood that Seattle becomes the next NHL expansion city

AP Photo/Matt Slocum

US Women Golden: The gold medal drought is finally over. Thirty-eight years to the day after the “men’s famous Miracle on Ice” victory over the Russians, the U.S. women’s hockey team won its second gold medal in Olympic women’s hockey history in a thrilling shootout victory Thursday morning over the juggernaut known as Team Canada. Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson scored the game-winning goal with a video-game like triple deke move before slipping the puck past Canadian goalie Shannon Szabados and into the net in the sixth round of the shootout. American netminder Maddie Rooney stopped the last two Canadian shootout attempts to secure the team’s first gold medal since the 1998 Olympic games.

The U.S. jumped to a 1–0 lead with just seconds remaining in the first period but Team Canada responded almost immediately in the second period and eventually scored twice to take a 2–1 lead into the final period. The Americans pressured Team Canada for much of the third period before finally netting the game-tying goal when Monique Lamoureux-Morando tied the game on a breakaway goal. In case you were wondering, Lamoureux-Morando is Lamoureux-Davidson’s twin sister (what a day for that family). Given the outcome and intense nature of the game that left many fans watching on the edge of their seats, the game and overall tournament has to be considered a win for the American hockey community attemlting to desperately grow the game.

Although the men’s team wasn’t as fortunate as the women’s squad, the result has to similarly be considered a success despite losing in the quarterfinals during a shootout to the Czech Republic. Shootouts are always a toss up and unfortunately for the men, they were unable to score a goal in five attempts and lost the shootout 1–0. However, they were rather competitive in most of the games, outside of the 4–0 thrashing to Russia in the preliminary round. Considering the NHL opted not to compete in the Olympics, it gave certain players more of a spotlight to showcase their abilities on one of the highest stage possible. However, one has to wonder if the NHL will rethink its decision to sit out the Olympics come the 2022 games. As ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski wrote: