WINTER OLYMPICS
The United States Thursday defeated Canada 3-2 in a sudden-death shootout to win Winter Olympics gold in the women’s ice hockey for the first time in 20 years.
The scores were level at 2-2 after five penalty shots each, but USA’s Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson scored past Shannon Szabados before Maddie Rooney saved from Canada’s Meghan Agosta.
Canada won gold at the previous four Olympics, including victories over USA in the 2002, 2010 and 2014 finals.
The game had ended 2-2 after overtime.
Hillary Knight opened the scoring for USA but Haley Irwin and Marie-Philip Poulin put Canada ahead before Monique Lamoureux-Morando took the match into overtime in Pyeongchang.
USA beat Canada in the first women’s ice hockey Winter Olympic final in 1998.
Lamoureux-Davidson said she had repeatedly practised the move in which she feinted to the left before taking the puck round Szabados to the right to score the winning penalty-shot.
“I’ve done that thousands of times around tyres just set out on open ice,” she said. “It’s called ‘Oops, I did it again’ and I’m just thrilled beyond words.
“I’ve butchered it a thousand times, ran into tyres, tripped over tyres just working on my hands. I’m just glad it worked out this time.
“This victory is special and it’s going to give us an even bigger platform to make a bigger difference.”
Twin sister Lamoureux-Morando added: “It’s a move that our coach Peter Elander worked on with us over the last four years, not just on the goalie, but against defenders.
“We’ve screwed it up plenty of times, but she pulled the perfect time to pull it off.”
