Now, It’s Personal Americans’ 7-4 Win Over Canada Brings Women’s Hockey Feud To A Boil
As Olympic feuds go, this one is not political. It’s a down-and-dirty domestic war between teams that have practically been living with each other since late October.
“A lot of love out there, eh?” Shannon Miller said through gritted teeth after her Canadian women’s hockey team was stunned by six consecutive third-period goals Saturday and lost 7-4 to the United States at the Aqua Wing.
When no one agreed with her, she added, “There is an intense dislike.”
“They’re the reigning champions,” said Ben Smith, the stoic U.S. coach. “We’re trying to take something that they have.”
You name it, this one had it, all the more remarkable because the game was virtually meaningless. Both teams, unbeaten in four games coming in, had clinched spots in Tuesday’s gold-medal game. By winning Saturday, the United States earned the designation as the home team and the right to make the final line change. The Americans also evened an increasingly bitter series, which began on Oct. 25, at seven games apiece. “It’s the perfect scenario rolling into the gold-medal game,” Smith said.
If this is how these teams, by far the class of the world, are intent on selling their relatively new sport, they are doing it with all the charm of a toothless smile.
Saturday night’s game was chippy, penalty-filled - “out of control,” said Miller, who also accused the United States’ Sandra Whyte of antagonizing Canada’s Danielle Goyette at the end of the game by making comments about her father, who died last week. Miller, who was furious at the Americans for their physical play and who was caught swearing at the Americans’ bench several times by close-up camera shots, said the remark to Goyette was “uncalled-for.”
After the handshake line, Goyette and a couple of American players exchanged words. Miller aired her unhappiness with the U.S. players to Cammi Granato, one of the American captains, who later denied that any such remark about the player’s father had been made. “We sent her a sympathy card last week, and we all signed it,” Granato said.
Whyte, through a team spokesman, admitted she called Goyette “a dirty name,” but insisted it had nothing to do with her father.
Miller made a point of saying that she had held two key players out of the game and that the Canadians did not approach it with the same “rah-rah, hungry attitude” of the United States. “I don’t think they can play any better,” she said.
CBS rankles USOC
The U.S. Olympic Committee’s top marketing executive criticized CBS’ coverage of the Games, complaining that ratings could be down because the network is making bad decisions with the timing of its commercials.
“I am not happy with CBS,” said John Krimsky, the USOC’s managing director for business affairs. “The networks have got to be able to sustain sports competition for a longer period of time and they’ve got to stop interrupting at critical points to throw in one more ad and one more billboard.”
CBS has received a 16.6 prime-time rating for the first eight days of the Winter Olympics, down 12 percent from the 1992 winter games in Albertville, France.
Richter’s the man
U.S. men’s hockey coach Ron Wilson said Mike Richter will be his starter in goal for the rest of the tournament.
“He has the best numbers of any of our goalies. The team has a lot of faith in him,” Wilson said.
Richter started the first two games for the U.S. team, a 4-2 loss to Sweden followed by Friday’s 5-2 victory over Belarus. The Americans play Canada today - the team Richter defeated for the World Cup championship.