Video: Jocelyne Lamoureux Downs Team Canada, Clinches U.S. Gold, With Triple Deke in Epic Olympic Shootout
Jocelyne Lamoureux found an appropriately astonishing way to finish off one of the most memorable Olympic hockey finals in history.
Deep into a shootout that went to sudden-death, the 28-year-old from Grand Forks, North Dakota, advanced on Shannon Szabados in the Canadian net. She deked once to the left, sitting Szabados down. Another deke to the right left the netminder on her back. As Szabados scrambled to recover, Lamoureux switched to her forehand and stuck away the goal that put the U.S. women on the brink of a first Olympic hockey gold medal since Nagano, Japan, in 1998.
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LAMOUREUX’S WINNER. USA GETS GOLD pic.twitter.com/zzPWyilraE
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) February 22, 2018
The U.S. still had to rely on their own goaltender Maddie Rooney to seal the deal, but the 20-year-old from Duluth, Minnesota, stopped one more shot to clinch gold.
The U.S. dominated the shot count through regulation and overtime, forcing Szabados into 42 saves. Rooney made 31 but Canada made their chances count more effectively.
Haley Irwin canceled out Hilary Knight’s first-period goal on a redirect before Marie-Philip Poulin, Canada’s captain and transcendent player, struck a one-timer off a feed from Meghan Acosta.
The U.S. rallied, cranked up the pressure and finally drew level in the third period on a breakaway goal from Monique Lamoureux, Jocelyne’s twin sister. That was the prelude to a frantic overtime period during which the Canadians, visibly exhausted, withstood wave upon wave of U.S. attacks. With one minute and 35 seconds remaining, Megan Keller took a penalty to give Canada a four-on-three powerplay that they couldn’t convert.
Maybe a shootout is a slightly unfulfilling way to separate two teams after 80 minutes of play couldn’t. But the fact is that the U.S. held its nerve in the shootout better than its more heralded, bitter rival to the north.
The New York Times pithily demonstrated the historic dominance of Canada and the U.S. in Olympic women’s hockey.
“No team other than the United States and Canada has won gold in this event,” Matthew Futterman wrote. “The United States won at the 1998 Nagano Games and Canada won the next four golds, with the United States taking silver each year except for 2006.”
The Canadians will try to reassert their superiority in Beijing in four years’ time. The Americans will savor the moment, and memory, of Lamoureux’s gold-medal-winning dekes long beyond 2022.