From February 28, 2022. Read the full article in THN's archives.
THE COUNTDOWN WAS ON.
The seconds were winding down toward the end of what has become the perennial Olympic women’s hockey gold-medal game between Canada and the United States as both benches focused on the digital scoreboard hanging over center ice at the Wukesong Sports Centre.
Unlike rinks in North America, the countdown to the final buzzer on Beijing’s side of the globe is not 5-4-3-2-1 but rather 56-57-58-59-60. And when the seconds ran out, or in this case reached their limit, the Canadians, up 3-1 as they entered the third period, hung on to beat Team USA 3-2 in another classic encounter of the two powerhouse teams at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. “It is insane,” said 21-year-old center Sarah Fillier, who looks every bit the next great player with a maple leaf on her chest. “I can’t stop shaking. It’s a dream come true. I don’t think I can find the words. I’m still shaking.”
On the other side of center ice, the Americans held back tears as they watched their rivals enjoy the Olympic spotlight. “I don’t think we scratched the surface with our ability to play,” said U.S. defender Lee Stecklein. “But at the end of the day, the score is what it is, they won the gold medal, we didn’t. You have to give them credit.
“It’s bittersweet. You sign up for a tournament, you want to win, we didn’t win, but weeks from now, we’ll have to appreciate the fact that we did go to the Olympic Games and earn a medal. Some people don’t get that opportunity. So it’s extremely special, but right now, it definitely stings.”
Truth be known, there was another clock that played a more important role in Canada’s return to the top spot on the podium. It was after a heart-wrenching shootout loss to the U.S. in the gold-medal game of the 2018 Pyeongchang Games that Canada GM Gina Kingsbury started racking her brain on how to motivate her dejected players. Enterprisingly, Kingsbury and the leadership group at Hockey Canada had the idea of giving each member of Team Canada a clock that counted down the days and hours to the Beijing 2022 Games, 999 days out.
“We were looking at that clock all the time,” said Canadian winger Natalie Spooner. “We had it in our houses, and even through COVID, we obviously were not able to be together for a lot of that time. When Gina brought this in, we knew it was time to get back to work. There were a lot of days on that clock at the beginning. But when time went off, when it was 00:00, it was time to get the hard work done.”
Read the remainder of the article in THN's archives.