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The two great powers of world women’s hockey crossed swords for the first time on Tuesday at the Beijing Olympics, and it was Canada who finally got the last word.
The Canadian team secured a 4-2 win over arch-rivals USA in the final game of the group stage.
Since each of the two nations had easily won their first three round robin games, it was the Canadians who finished first in Group A.
In the quarter-finals, Troy Ryan’s team will face a team from Group B whose identity is unknown for the moment, since the round robin has yet to be completed.
If Canada was able to savor the victory in this probable foretaste of the grand final, it was thanks in particular to the brilliance of goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens, who saved 16 pucks in the first period, while her teammates were limited to four shots on the American net.
Desbiens’ colossal performance resulted in a phenomenal 51 saves.
“As a goalkeeper, my role is to give my team an opportunity to win. I think our first period was not our best of the tournament, but we ended it with a 1-0 lead. It’s things like that that make the difference, “said Desbiens in an interview after -match at HERE Radio-Canada.
“Nothing changes, no matter who we play against. The idea is to have an aggressive forecheck and to put pressure, regardless of our opponent,” added the gate from the Charlevoix region.
Brianne Jenner, author of a double, was one of the other great craftsmen of the victory.
Captain Marie-Philip Poulin scored her second goal of the competition on a penalty shot late in the second period.
She was hooked on a shorthanded breakaway, and Poulin made the Americans pay moments later.
“We told ourselves to take a deep breath. Like it or not, the stress was there, agreed Poulin. There is always a little more emotion (against the Americans). It was seen in the first period, but I think that from the second, we remained faithful to our game plan. We played faster and moved the puck faster. »
On the American side, Dani Cameranesi and Alexandra Carpenter hit the target 1:43 apart, early in the middle period.
It was then that the Canadians scored three unanswered goals; the second of Jenner’s match, that of Jamie Lee Rattray, then that of Poulin.
After consecutive gold medals in 2002, 2006 and 2010 in Salt Lake City, Sochi and Vancouver, Canada ceded the top step of the podium to its great rivals in 2018, in Pyeongchang.
