Frack, Canada Men Win Gold In OT

This time I got a phone call from Renee and Renee's unhusband when it was over.

After Ryan Parise tied the game with 24 seconds left to stun the crowd into silence at Canada Hockey Place, Sidney Crosby got the red and white party started with a goal in the overtime period to deny Team USA their first Olympic gold medal since the 1980 Miracle on Ice squad accomplished the feat.

Oh well, Sochi's only four years away.

This Time It's For The Gold Medal

It's hard to beat a team multiple times in any sport, but that's what Team USA's men's hockey team will have to do today if they wish to return to the States with a hockey gold medal for the first time in 30 years.

The Hockey Border War between the United States and Canada will kick off again at 3 PM EST. It's not only a rematch of the preliminary round game the US won last Sunday 5-3, it's also a rematch of the 2002 gold medal game in Salt Lake City that the Canadians won 5-2.

Team USA scored early and often in their semifinal game versus Finland Friday and made those goals stand up for a 6-1 victory.

Ever since that 5-3 preliminary round defeat the Canadian men have been on a roll themselves with victories over Germany, Russia and Slovakia.

They also have the pressure of an entire nation on their backs as well.

Go Team USA!

When North Americans Dominate An Olympic Sport, Why Does The IOC Want To Cancel It?

While I'm still disappointed about the Team USA women losing to Canada in the gold medal game last night, what has bothered me even more are the comments attributed to IOC president Jacques Rogge concerning the future of women's hockey in the winter Olympic games.

He said this to the Vancouver Sun on the same day of the US-Canada women's final.

“There is a discrepancy there. “Everyone agrees with that. This is maybe the investment period in women’s ice hockey. I would personally give them more time to grow, but there must be a period of improvement. We cannot continue without improvement.’’

The IOC doesn't have enough women's sports in the Olympic program to begin with, and refused to add women's ski jumping to it for this Olympic cycle.

So why the chatter about canceling women's hockey?

I believe much of this carping about women's hockey has to do with the fact that it has been a US-Canadian party so far. How much of a hue and cry would there be to end it if a European nation such as Russia or Sweden were dominating it instead of the United States or Canada?

When the Russian women were dominating women's Olympic basketball by capturing the 1976, 1980, and 1992 golds, deafening silence.

Softball got yanked as a Olympic medal sport for the 2012 London Games probably because of American domination of it. Never mind the fact that Japan knocked off Team USA for the 2008 gold medal in Beijing.

An attempt to bring it and baseball back into the Olympic program for 2016 was defeated despite the fact both sports are played all over the planet.

As was pointed out by IIHF president Rene Fasel men's hockey in his Swiss homeland experienced a lopsided 22-0 butt kicking in the 1930's administered by the Canadians. Swiss hockey grew to the point in which they knocked off the Canadians in the 2006 Torino games, and extended them to a hard fought 3-2 shootout loss in Vancouver.

Same story with the USA men's dominance of Olympic basketball. We went from sending collegiate all star teams to blow out the world's best to having to send our NBA ballers to uphold national basketball pride.

Even the NBA ballers now are challenged to the point where they only came home with bronze in 2004 and were severely challenged by Spain in 2008 before subduing them for gold.

Team USA women's basketball since the 1996 Atlanta Games has won four consecutive gold medals and six overall (1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008). Instead of jibber-jabber about canceling the sport, the rest of the planet is rolling up their sleeves and raising their level of play to compete with us.

The result is that Team USA, even with WNBA players in the lineups are being stiffly challenged now by the Australians and the Russians. The Russians upset us in the 2006 FIBA worlds semis, and the Aussies have been our Olympics finals opponent in three consecutive Olympiads.

So if you non-North Americans want to end Canadian-US dominance of women's ice hockey, lower your level of complaining and raise your level of play.

We had to do that in the States and Canada to be competitive in sports Europeans dominate like Nordic combined, bobsled, speed skating and ice dancing.

Team USA has had to step up their hockey game just to be competitive with the Canadians. It's paid off with consecutive world hockey championships, two silvers and a bronze medal in Olympic competition, but no gold since 1998.

But as we American sports fans painfully know, all good Olympic sports dynasties come to an end, and this current Canadian run of Olympic hockey success will one day as well.

Step up your game, don't end it.

Oh Well-Canada Wins Olympic Gold

Renee is happily drinking her green tea this morning instead of crying in it like she was Monday because the Canadian women did something their male hockey playing counterparts haven't been able to do in these Olympics so far:

Beat Team USA.

They parlayed two early first period goals by Marie-Philip Poulin and the goaltending of Shannon Szabados into a 2-0 win for gold. Szabados stopped 28 shots to help Team Canada win their third straight Olympic gold medal and rack up their 15th straight Olympic win.

While Team USA did walk away with silver medals, it's one of the times in the Olympics when you aren't happy about it. When you lose to your bitter rival, it's even worse.

“Szabados played out of her mind,” Monique Lamoureux said. “It’s never fun to lose, especially in a championship game.”

“When you give your whole life to something and you come up short, as a team, it’s just awful,” four time Olympian Angela Ruggiero said while choking back tears. “It’s a little different than playing on the men’s side. You really give your life to it. You make lots of sacrifices to win the gold medal.”

Well ladies, you played your butts off to be so young. There were 15 Olympic rookies on that squad and you're still the two time world champions.

All Olympic sporting dynasties end sooner or later. The Canadian women will eventually lose an Olympic hockey game. Just get 'em in Sochi in 2014.

Assuming the IOC doesn't end women's Olympic hockey because Canada and the USA are dominating it right now.

It's On Renee-USA Vs Canada Women For Gold

At 6:30 PM EST what me and Renee have been trading barbs across the 49th parallel about for several months will finally happen.

The Clash of the Women's Hockey Superpowers at Canada Hockey Place.

It's the two time defending Olympic gold medalist Team Canada versus the two time reigning world champion and number one ranked Team USA.

This game is also taking place in the shadow of the 30th anniversary of the 'Miracle on Ice' game and the historic men's win over Canada on Sunday.

Interestingly enough, Mark Johnson, one of the major catalysts of the 4-3 win over the Russians is Team USA's coach.

Team USA has outscored its opponents 40-2 enroute to this Olympic final with 12-1, 13-0 and 6-0 wins over China, Russia and Finland in the preliminary round and a 9-1 semifinal win over Sweden. It avenged a 3-2 upset shootout loss in Torino that denied Team USA a trip to the 2006 Olympic final.

Canada has been just as dominant on its side of the Vancouver bracket. It steamrolled Slovakia 18-0, Switzerland 10-1 and Sweden 13-1 before posting a 5-0 shutout win over Finland in the semifinals.

It may be your house Renee, but we're coming to spoil the party. We want to do unto Canada what was done unto us at Salt Lake in 2002. Deny them the opportunity to win gold on their home soil.

My two time defending world champion girls won't be intimidated either.

"There's nothing better as an athlete – let alone a hockey player – than to play in a building of this magnitude, to have all the fans screaming," said Angela Ruggiero, who is one of two Americans to play in all four Olympic women's hockey tournaments.

"A lot of us were able to see the men win just, if anything, to get a sense of what the atmosphere is going to be like – hostile, fans chanting against you. And that's OK because I think our team thrives off of that."

It's on, Renee. Looking forward to watching my girls win gold, owning your podium and seeing the Stars and Stripes rise high in Canada Hockey Place.

30th Anniversary of The 'Miracle On Ice'

Do you believe in miracles? Yes! Al Michaels, February 1980


It's fitting that we are in the midst of a Winter Olympic Games being held on the North American continent as the 30th anniversary of Team USA's improbable February 22, 1980 Olympic hockey victory 4-3 upset victory over the Soviet hockey team is being celebrated.

I was a few months from graduating from high school when I arrived home from tennis practice and was informed by my mother that the United States had beaten the Big Bad USSR in Olympic hockey.

To grasp the magnitude of that win, as part of its 100th anniversary celebrations in 2008, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) picked the Miracle on Ice as the number-one international hockey story of the century.

Bear in mind that this was a semifinal medal round game. Team USA still had to win the game against Finland to secure the gold medal.

This was also the same USSR team that embarrassed Team USA in a February 9 game at Madison Square Garden 10-3.

But what a difference two weeks makes.



It's 30 years later and I still get goosebumps watching that game.

5-3 USA! USA! USA!

The last time the United States beat Team Canada in Olympic hockey, my parents were a few months shy of graduating from high school.

Since that 2-1 February 25, 1960 win in Squaw Valley, CA Team USA has gone 0-5-1 in Olympic competition against Canada.

Until tonight.

Fittingly wearing replica 1960 uniforms and playing a day before the 30th anniversary of the 1980 'Miracle on Ice', Team USA followed the script of the 1960 and 1980 teams in riding the hot goaltending of Ryan Miller and some timely shots to a stunning 5-3 upset of Team Canada in front of a raucous crowd in Vancouver.

Ryan Miller did his best Jack McCartan and Jim Craig impression by stopping 45 shots in upsetting the heavily favored Canadians. It was the first time in 50 years that the United States men have beaten Canada in hockey and helped them close the preliminary phase of Olympic play with an unblemished record in Group A.

Team USA not only clinched the top spot on Group A, but also gained a bye into the quarterfinal round.

While Team Canada isn't out of the medals, their road to win gold became that much tougher. They not only have to play an extra game, they will have to win four consecutive games to do so.

The 1960 'Forgotten Miracle' team not only went unbeaten to gold at Squaw Valley, but went through Canada, the USSR, and Czechoslovakia in consecutive games to do it. The 1980 'Miracle on Ice' squad, well you know the story.

Can this 2010 United States men's team join those legendary Olympic hockey teams and come back with a gold medal?

They are only three tantalizing games away from doing just that.

Olympic Hockey Border War-Men's Division

We share a long border, the English language and a continent. But for the next two hours, they are The Maple Leaf Flag Waving Enemy.

It's the Olympic hockey showdown at the OK Corral, men's division. It's Team USA versus our Canadian neighbors,

It's Canada's game and national sporting passion. Team USA are no hockey slouches and are playing the day before the 30th anniversary of the 'Miracle on Ice'.

The Canadians won Olympic gold at the 1952 Oslo Games and to our chagrin the 2002 Salt Lake Games. Team USA won on home soil at Squaw Valley in 1960 and Lake Placid in 1980. We're also the only nation in Winter Olympic history to have won Olympic hockey gold as the host nation and we've done it twice.

Fittingly, there are high stakes in this final men's preliminary round game as well. Winner wins Group A and gets a bye into the quarterfinals. Loser plays an extra game to get to the medal round.

'Feel the Thunder' my azz. Time for some Olympic payback.

In 2002 they beat us in the gold medal game on US soil. Time to bring some pain to Canadian dreams of winning gold on their home soil.

USA! USA! USA!

Six Is The Magic Number For Team USA Olympic Hockey

Both the Team USA men and women stayed perfect in Olympic today by scoring six goals in their respective pool play hockey games.

The Team USA women scored four first period goals enroute to a 6-0 shutout win Thursday over Finland at the UBC Thunderbird Arena. It helped Team USA clinch the top spot in Group B and put them in the medal round.

They will face Sweden on Monday at Canada Hockey Place with a chance to gain redemption. The Swedish team shocked the women's hockey world in 2006 by derailing the expected gold medal hockey showdown between the USA and Canada by upsetting Team USA 3-2 in a shootout.

It's obvious from the 13-1 shellacking Team Canada put on them Wednesday that this is a far different Swedish team than the Torino bronze medalists.

But anything can happen when you play the games, and it's still too early to count gold medals before they're awarded.

Over at Canada Hockey Place, the Team USA men also scored six goals in their 6-1 Group A victory over Norway.

Their next game promises to be much tougher since it will be a Sunday showdown against Team Canada that will decide who wins Group A. The Canadians warmed up for the showdown by taking a hard-fought 3-2 shootout win against Switzerland.

We'll see if both the men's and women's teams will have golden results.

Good Day For Team USA Hockey

Team USA men's and women's hockey players took to the ice today at their respective venues and won.

This is the youngest USA men's hockey team to take the ice since the 1998 Nagano squad. Unlike the women, they are also playing in the same group with Team Canada.

They got their Olympic tournament off to a promising start with a 3-1 victory over Switzerland at Canada Hockey Place.

Goaltender Ryan Miller faced on 14 Swiss shots as Team USA tallied goals by Bobby Ryan, David Backes and Ryan Malone. Switzerland avoided the shutout by scoring a power play goal at 9:45 of the third period.

Their toughest competition, the Russians and homestanding Canadians also won their opening round games with Russia beating Latvia 8-2 and the Canadians rolling to an 8-0 victory over Norway in front of a flag waving sellout crowd after being held to a scoreless first period.

The USA men's team will face a critical game on Thursday with Norway.

Meanwhile over at the UBC Thunderbird Arena, the Team USA women continued their domination of Group B with a US record setting victory over Russia.

Team USA tallied a record seven power play goals and Jenny Potter scored her second hat trick of this Olympic tournament enroute to the 13-0 win.

The Team USA women have scored 25 goals in their initial two games while surrendering only one. The win clinched their spot in the February 20-22 crossover round, and they will play Finland Thursday to decide the winner of Group B.

12-1, Renee: USA! USA! USA!

The back to back world champion and number one ranked Team USA played their first game in this 2010 women's Olympic hockey tournament versus China.

Team USA unleashed 61 shots on goal and took a 5-0 lead after the first period concluded enroute to tying an American Olympic record with their 12-1 victory.

The game was played in front of a flag waving crowd that included Vice President Joe Biden and his wife and 1980 USA Olympic hockey captain Mike Eruzione.

Jenny Potter scored three goals in only 22 minutes to become the all time leading scorer in US Olympic history male or female.

“You don’t ever like to beat a team, 12-1,” Natalie Darwitz, the American captain, said, adding, “I think we got a little sloppy there in the middle and the end. It’s kind of a tough game when you’re controlling the play and it gets to be about goals and points. You get away from doing the little things.”

Team USA's next Group B game will take place on Tuesday against the Russians, who lost to Finland 5-1 in their opener.

One down, four to go

So Canada Beat Slovakia 18-0: It's Still Early

The opening ceremonies are over, the Olympic flame has made it to its dual cauldrons in BC Place and downtown Vancouver and the competition is now underway.

A certain Canadian and I have been engaged in trash talking for several months over our respective world number one and two ranked women's hockey teams. When the opening ceremonies were over she wasted little time reminding me we were on Canadian soil and chanting 'feel the thunder', the Canadian Olympic slogan for these games.

The two time defending gold medallists opened Group A preliminary play against first timers Slovakia. The Canadians raced out to a 7-0 first period lead and never looked back in their record setting 18-0 blowout.

The previous record was a 2006 16-0 Canadian romp over Italy

But am I feeling the thunder? Nope.

If Team Canada rings up double digit goals to Sweden, the defending Torino silver medalists, then that's a cause for concern.

The Swedes are no women's hockey slouches. They upset Team USA during the 2006 Olympic semis in Torino enroute to the silver medal and won their opening Group A game against Switzerland 3-0.

Reminder to Renee and my other Canadian readers, they are in your group. Sweden wants to take a chunk out of both our squads and think they can.

The back to back world champions and number one ranked Team USA women make their Vancouver hockey debut versus China in Group A play.

Interesting note about Team USA is they are coached by Mark Johnson, who was a member of the 1980 Lake Placid 'Miracle on Ice' gold medal squad.

There are also several members of this team that remember the less than satisfying results in Salt Lake and Torino and want some redemption.

But the pressure is on Canada to defend their home turf and threepeat as Olympic champs.

So yeah, a lot of hockey has to be played before we get to the women's Olympic hockey final on February 25.

And as any sports fan can tell you, anything can happen when you play the games.

Renee...The Olympic Hockey Beatdown Is Coming!

The Vancouver Winter Olympic Games will be starting February 12, and Renee's finally starting to get Olympic fever since the torch run passed within two blocks of her house.

One of the many things we have in common is that we are big women's hockey fans. Of course, she's Canadian and it's their national sport.

We've had some good natured trash talking going on about which one of our squads will take home the women's hockey gold from Vancouver. Canada and the United States have been the two best teams on the international women's hockey competition scene and the rivalry is an intense one.

When the Vancouver Games kick off the women's hockey tournament will feature the anticipated battle between the current two time women's world champion Team USA versus the two time defending Olympic champs Team Canada.

Both teams are in separate pools, so barring upsets, they will meet in the gold medal match. And as you can see, the trash talking is only beginning.

May I remind you Renee and all proud Canadians, when women's hockey was first contested as a medal sport at Nagano in 1998, we beat Team Canada twice to skate away with the first gold ever awarded in Olympic competition.

The 2010 USA women's Olympic team has been selected. There are six Olympians on that squad including Angela Ruggiero and Jenny Potter, who were on the 1998 Nagano gold medal squad.

My girls will be training hard to make sure that gold medal comes back to the States with them. Yeah, we definitely haven't forgotten Salt Lake 2002 and owe y'all an Olympic butt kicking y'all so richly deserve.

I have already composed a special version of the Canadian National Anthem I will post to TransGriot when the Olympic tournament is over and the Stars And Stripes is being raised above the Canadian flag to the rafters of GM Place.

(singing to tune of the Canadian national anthem)
Oh Canada,
Your fans will get to see
Your women lose
The gold in women's hockey

You'll see the rest of it on February 25. FYI, that's the date the women's Olympic hockey gold medal game will be contested.

USA! USA! USA!

Yo Renee, Canada's Women's Ice Hockey Is Going Down In 2010!

The Olympic flame lighting ceremony for the 2010 Vancouver Games will happen tomorrow while we're sleeping at 2 AM on this side of the Pond in Olympia, Greece.

The flame is lit outside of the ruins of the Temple of Hera using the rays of the sun focused on a metal reflector. It is part of a ritual in which includes a prayer and a hymn made by a woman representing the ancient role of the high priestess.

The ceremony also involves a young boy who cuts off an olive branch and gives it to the high priestess as a symbolical gesture.

The woman playing that role of the high priestess is Athens born Greek actress Maria Nafpliotou, who also presided over the flame lighting ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Games.

The Olympic flame is then taken in front of the statue of Pierre de Coubertin and handed off to the first of the torch runners. They will take the 2010 Olympic flame on a journey through Greece for several days before sending it overseas to arrive in Victoria, BC October 30 to begin the Canadian portion of the Olympic torch relay. It will travel through every province and territory of the host nation before it returns to BC Place Stadium on February 12 for the opening ceremony of the Games.

Who gets to light the Olympic cauldron will be kept a secret until that day. But the honor usually goes to a high profile athlete of the Olympic host nation.

What that means to this Olympics junkie and the rest of you casual sports fans is we are getting close to the start of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games that will take place in Vancouver, BC from February 12-28.

It's also triggered some good-natured trash talking between me and my Canadian homegirl.

She's been bragging (and rightfully so) about her two time (2002-2006) Olympic champion Canadian women's hockey team. The Canadian women along with the USA women have been the dominant teams in the sport while everyone else in the world has been trying to rise to the elite hockey skill levels of the Americans and Canadians.

Team Canada won eight straight International Hockey Federation women's world titles from 1990-2004 until Team USA broke that streak in 2005 by winning a 1-0 shootout. Canada reclaimed the IHF world title in 2007 by beating Team USA 5-1 in the final.

In addition to watching Team Canada pile up wins at their expense, Team USA chafed at being the bridesmaid to Team Canada's championship bride.

But when hockey was added to the winter Olympic women's sports program for the 1998 Nagano Games, Team USA flipped the script and upset the highly favored Canadians 7-4 in pool play. They then proved it wasn't a fluke by beating the then four time world champs again 3-1 in the gold medal match to skate back to the States with the first ever Olympic gold medal awarded in women's hockey.

And that only added fuel to an already hot sports rivalry.

Renee has not let me forget and rubs it in at regular intervals that the Canadian women avenged their 1998 Nagano loss by snagging their first Olympic gold medal on US soil.

They rolled into Salt Lake City and beat us 3-2 in the gold medal game.

In the 2006 Turin Games the USA women were cruising to a payback rematch until they were upset in the semifinals by Sweden. The USA women ended up with the bronze medal as they watched Team Canada skate off with another gold medal after defeating Sweden 4-1 in the Olympic final.

The Team USA women are determined to improve on that 2006 Olympic bronze medal finish, beat their Canadian rivals and return to women's Olympic ice hockey supremacy. Nothing would be sweeter for Team USA than to do so while avenging our 2002 Olympic home ice loss and doing unto Team Canada in 2010 what was done unto us in 2002.

Team Canada is well aware of the target on their backs by being the two time Olympic champs, one of the best teams in women's international hockey and having the added pressure of being the host nation.

They will go all out to defend their Olympic title, make the home folks proud and make it three straight Olympiads they've skated away with gold medals.

But they know it won't be easy. Team USA won the IHF Women's World Hockey Championships last year in Harbin, China by beating Canada 4-3. They defended their IHF title in Hameenlinna, Finland back in April by beating down Canada 4-1 in the final.

Team USA wants to be standing on the top step of the Olympic medal platform in Vancouver when the women's Olympic hockey tournament is over.

The other nations in this upcoming Olympic tournament are determined to prove that they can not only play with but beat the two best teams in the hockey world in Team Canada and Team USA.

They are in different groups, so unless either team falls victim to upsets, the highly anticipated matchup between Canada and the United States won't happen until either the semifinals or hopefully the gold medal match.

Canada will be competing in Group A with 2006 Olympic silver medalists Sweden, Slovakia and Switzerland. The 2006 Olympic bronze medalists and two time reigning world champs will be in Group B with Finland, Russia and China.

Go Team USA Women!

Top two teams in each group advance to the semifinals.

It's going to be fun to watch, and I'm looking forward to hopefully calling her up and yelling USA! USA! USA! in the phone when it's over.

I want to see my girls waving the flag, kissing their gold medals and singing The Star Spangled Banner while watch our flag rise a little higher than Canada's at General Motors Place.

So yeah Renee, it's on like Donkey Kong.

Black Ice

Some hockey fans are familiar with the story of Willie O'Ree, who was the first Black player to break the color line in the NHL when he was called up by the Boston Bruins in January 18, 1958 and played his first game against the Montreal Canadiens.

Sadly, O'Ree played only two NHL games that season and 43 more in the 1961 one with the Bruins because he was hit in the right eye with a puck and lost sight in it. He still managed to play 21 seasons of professional hockey, become an ambassador for the game of hockey and runs the NHL diversity effort entitled Hockey Is For Everyone.

But thanks to Canadian historians George and Darril Fosty's book Black Ice, it talks about a little known piece of our sporting history. The Black legacy in hockey can be traced back to the early 1870s and is also intertwined with the history of the Black Loyalists as well.

Many of these players were descendants of the Black Loyalists, and the book also delves into the fascinating history of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes. The league was formed in 1895, was headquartered in Halifax, NS and lasted until the 1920s.

The Fosty's reveal in this book that the Colored League players were so talented, they were frozen out of the predominately white run competition for the Stanley Cup, which commenced in 1893. They also point out that many of hockey's innovations such as the slap shot, the offensive style of goaltending, sitting completely down to the ice to stop the puck, and half time shows at games were creations of Black players.

The Black players in the modern NHL such as Jarome Iginla, Mike Grier, Georges Laraque, Anson Carter and Kevin Weekes all are building on Willie O'Ree's legacy and the legacy of Hall of Fame players like goaltender Grant Fuhr.

But they are also playing for the turn of the 20th century players such as Henry Sylvester Williams, James Johnston and James Kinney who have yet to see their stories enshrined in hockey history as well.