Ice hockey is a game which is played with six players per side, five skaters and a goaltender.
Yesterday, the women’s Olympic final between the United States and Canada showed two evenly-matched teams which played each other to a dead standstill when each team was even-strength.
But it was special teams on which the game’s outcome turned.
Canada had scored first, with Kristin O’Neill putting in a shorthanded goal. The U.S. had been on the power play, and one of the States’ converted forwards, Laila Edwards, had allowed O’Neill the space on goal side to break in for the shot.
For much of the game, it looked like the United States would fall short. Ann-Renee Desbiens was stupendous in the goal, and it looked a lot like the 2002 and 2010 finals when immense goalie play flummoxed the United States.
The United States would level the score with under three minutes to go, with the ultimate gambit: pulling the goalie for a sixth attacker. Edwards, redeeming herself, put a shot on the goal frame that Hilary Knight tipped past Desbiens. It wasn’t a power-play goal, but the extra attacker changed the way Canada had to play defense. The crisp U.S. passing kept Canada from filling the lanes like they wanted to.
The game-winner was also a special-teams goal, as the game had moved to a 20-minute 3-on-3 overtime period. Since the NHL and IIHF have gone to this format to break ties, the pace and rhythm of overtimes have changed. I have seen situations where the first faceoff in overtime is the most important juncture of play, since a skilled team can hold onto possessions for three or four minutes of time. A team can weave in and out of the zone, taking the puck back even into their defensive end just to hold possession. The passing and weaving is to a level you wouldn’t have seen 50 years ago.
While possession is essential in overtime, so is smart interchanging. In the fifth minute of overtime, forward Taylor Heise threw a 120-foot pass to close defender Megan Keller in the attacking half. She accepted the pass and cut towards the slot, wrongfooting Canada’s Claire Thompson. Keller’s backhand found its way between the blocker and leg pad of Desbiens, ending the game.
The game was great theater, for sure. But it also showed the fine margins of competition in women’s ice hockey. For the 51 minutes and 41 seconds that Canada and the United States played with five skaters and two goalies, the teams were even.
It was in the unconventional situations in which the three goals were scored.