The American Women’s Hockey Team is finally coming out of the shadow of Team Canada. Since the beginning of their existence in 1990, Team USA has always been known to finish with the Silver Medal to Team Canada. But recently the Americans have been able to beat Canada more frequently. In fact, they have beaten Canada for the Gold Medal three out of the last four World Championship tournaments. Now, at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, everyone is expecting an American-Canadian final and it won’t be any surprise if the Americans win.
She Shoots, She Scores!
The Americans have won their first two games 10-1 vs. China and 13-0 vs. Russia. Jenny Potter leads the tournament in points with 6 goals and 3 assists in only two games. Similar to Canada, all but one player on Team USA has tallied at least one point.
Natalie Darwitz
Team Captain, Natalie Darwitz, who has been playing for more than 10 years with the team, says that success comes from the team competing as much as possible and at every tournament worldwide.
Popular Plays
The popularity of Women’s Hockey has bursted in the last 10 years since the Americans starting beating the Canadians for gold. The Americans won the Gold Medal at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan, and since then, there has been an increase of 50,000 more registered women hockey players in the USA.
Miracle On Ice
Mark Johnson, a former player on Team USA when the Americans beat the Soviet Union in the classic “Miracle On Ice” Gold Medal game in the 1980 Olympics, took over coaching the women’s national program. He helped promote all levels of women’s hockey in the USA and now the Americans are winning consistently with more exposure and more talent coming into the game.
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