The United Staes opened their 2022 Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey tournament with a game against Finland. The United States are the defending champions in Women’s Olympic Ice Hockey. They won gold in 2018 in PyeongChang. Coming into this game the United States were ranked number one in the IIHF Women’s Olympic Hockey power rankings. Finland was ranked number three in the IIHF Women’s Olympic Hockey power rankings.
Game Review
Briana Decker went down around 10:28 in the first period. Her legs git tangled up with one of the Finland players behind Finlands net. She landed wrong or something causing an injury. It didn’t look like much but due to the low noise level in the arena her screams in pain could be clearly heard. This is the first time I can remember where a player has been injured like this in the hockey competitions at the Olympics. Amanda Kessel opened up the scoring at 10:37 in the first period making it 1-0 USA. Two minutes later Alex Carpenter would score on the power play to make it 2-0 USA. The United States would extend their lead in the second period with two more goals from the captain Kendall Coyne Schofield to make it 4-0 USA heading into the third. Finland finally scored in the third to make it 4-1 USA. The United States would respond with a goal from Alex Carpenter (her second of the game) to make it 5-1 USA. Finland would then score the games final goal late in the third to make it 2-5 USA. The final score was a 5-2 United States win.
The injury to Brianna Decker will cause her to miss the rest of the olympics. It’s unfortunate. That’s probably the worst way to go out. Now she has to watch her teammates play and she has no impact on the outcome of games. That can be the worst feeling. I hope that she heels up and is back on the ice soon. I hope that this isn’t a career ending injury for her. The United States women’s hockey teams is now 7-0 in opening olympic games. I think beating Finland by 3 is great. Other than the injury to Brianna Decker this is how I wanted them to start the tournament. After Canada’s demolished Switzerland, the United States needed a display of force. That is what they did. After the first games The United States and Canada showed that they are still on a whole other level than the rest of the teams in the tournament. The United States has a lot of momentum moving forward. They know what it takes to win. They know what it takes to win olympic gold. Right now it looks like they are on track for that.
Stats
Next game
The United States Women’s Hockey team 1-0-0 will take on ROC (Russia) 0-0-0 on February 5th. The puck drop for that game will be 8am eastern so that will be 5am our time (PST)
Zac Electrifly 