Angela Ruggiero

Hockey

This fall, high-school senior Angela Ruggiero stared at a stack of college applications that all seemed to ask the same essay question.

“They wanted me to write about a meaningful experience in my life,” Ruggiero said. “I wanted to write them back and say, ‘Hey, could you wait two months on that? I’m going to the Olympics.’ “

At 18, Ruggiero is the youngest member of the U.S. women’s hockey team that will play for the gold medal against Canada tonight. Born on Jan. 3, 1980, she is too young to remember the Miracle on Ice, but she believes the U.S.-Canada rivalry may be just as intense as the atmosphere at the Lake Placid Olympics. The women’s teams played a 13-game exhibition series before these Olympics that Canada won, 7-6. Then in a round-robin game Saturday, the Americans rallied from a three-goal deficit to win, 7-4, and even the series.

Each game has been more physical than the next, and with all the intrigue building toward tonight, Ruggiero figures she would have had a pretty good essay.

“Oh, I definitely could have written about that,” she said, pushing her straight, shoulder-length blond hair behind her ears every few minutes. “They’re the type of team you never get tired of; they are the best competition we’re going to see.

“They’re expected to win, and every time the U.S. goes out and beats them, they sort of have to explain why it happened.”