BEIJING — It was going to take more than a one-goal deficit to rattle Brianne Jenner and the Canadians in their long-running cross-border rivalry against the Americans, which resumed Tuesday at the Beijing Olympics.
Rather than wilt, Canada responded by scoring three times over a span of 5 minutes, 25 seconds to secure a 4-2 win over the defending champion United States, claiming the women’s hockey tournament’s top seed entering the playoff round.
“Hockey’s a game of momentum shifts, so to come out and have a strong shift regardless of if we score or not after they do, it’s huge,” Jenner said. “They’re a good hockey team, they’re going make plays, but I think we answered really well tonight.”
U.S. coach Joel Johnson said his team needs to be more resilient when the tide begins shifting.
“I thought it was the difference in the game,” Johnson said of Canada’s second-period surge. “I thought we carried all the momentum, and all of a sudden we just kind of forgot our situation a bit.”
There’s no reason for disappointment to set in for the Americans, or for the Canadians to spend too much time celebrating. Barring a major upset, the two global hockey powers are expected to meet again in the gold-medal final next week.
Canada (4-0) and the U.S. (3-1) are the tournament’s top seeds and combined to outscore each of their first three opponents by a margin of 47-5. Canada faces Sweden (2-2) in the quarterfinals after the Swedes advanced with a 3-1 win over Denmark. Also on Tuesday, Japan beat the Czech Republic 3-2 in a shootout, and Finland beat the Russians 5-0.
The U.S. takes on the Czech Republic (2-1-1) in the quarterfinals. Japan (3-0-1) faces Finland (1-3), and the Russians (1-3) meet Switzerland (1-3).
In a fierce rivalry dating to before the women’s first Olympic tournament at the 1998 Nagano Games — won by the Americans — the U.S. and Canada put on an entertaining show Tuesday in Beijing in a fast-paced outing in which the teams traded leads.
Jenner, who scored twice, sparked the run by one-timing in Sarah Nurse’s backhand pass into the slot to tie the game at 2 with eight minutes left and 26 seconds after Alex Carpenter scored for the U.S.
Jamie Lee Rattray scored for Canada 2:25 later by converting Natalie Spooner’s pass into the slot. Marie-Philip Poulin — nicknamed Canada’s Captain Clutch after scoring gold-medal clinching goals in 2010 and ’14 — capped the run by scoring on a penalty shot while in the midst of killing a penalty.
“She comes up clutch for us day in and day out,” goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens said. “When it matters, that’s when she’s at our best.”
