Another Miracle

[bad_meetz_evil]

TURIN, Italy (AP) -- The U.S. women's hockey players gathered in a circle at center ice, raised their sticks and waved them to their fans in one sweeping arc over their heads.

It was a routine repeated game after game after game in these Olympics and before, but this time was different. You could see it in their eyes, red with tears and looking at anything but the giant group hug being staged by the exuberant, wiggling heap of yellow jerseys behind them.

The Americans had been beaten, and for the first time since women's hockey went international in 1990, by someone besides Canada. The North American monopoly had been broken.

Sweden won 3-2 in a shootout in the Olympic semifinals and will play Canada, a 6-0 winner over Finland in the other semifinal, for the gold medal on Monday.

"This has been a long time in the making for our game," said American defenseman Angela Ruggiero, a three-time Olympian. "They say there's no parity in women's hockey. Well, now you know better. It doesn't make me happy, but that's hockey."

The architect of the Swedish upset was 19-year-old Kim Martin, a cool, 5-foot-4 wisp of a goalie with a brick fortress painted on her mask.

She stopped everything the Americans shot at her in the final 48:56 of regulation and overtime, finishing with 37 saves, and then turned away all four American attempts in a shootout.

Maria Rooth, whose four years at Minnesota-Duluth paved the way for dozens of other European players to the world's best training grounds, had both regulation scores in a 3 1/2-minute span and the clinching shootout goal.

When she was only 15, Martin led the Swedes to the bronze medal in Salt Lake City. On Friday, she was the difference in a watershed win that decisively proves women's hockey is growing under North America's considerable shadow.

"This is the greatest thing to happen to women's hockey in Sweden and everywhere around," Martin said. "We knew we were getting better and better all the time. We needed to beat the U.S. or Canada to show it."

The Americans often seemed to be begging for their first loss to Sweden in 26 meetings, playing carelessly and tentatively despite a heavy advantage in shots. Both of Rooth's goals were gifts on U.S. giveaways, leaving goalie Chanda Gunn helpless.

For at least one evening, Sweden definitely had a better team than the U.S. That's another bit of international progress the Americans were hoping wouldn't arrive until after the gold-medal match.

"I think we've got a young team, [but] it's not an excuse," said Jenny Potter, a three-time Olympian. "Things didn't go our way. Their goalie stood on her head, and we didn't bury it. It's hard. It brings tears to my eyes. I think we outplayed them."

The sport's domination by the U.S. and Canada was the talk of the tournament's first week, with some questioning whether a sport even more stratified than baseball belonged in the Olympics.

Canada and the U.S. had never lost to anybody except each other in a match at the World Cup or the Olympics. The Americans won the sport's inaugural gold medal in Nagano and Canada won in Salt Lake City, shredding their foes in every prior match.

But the Americans barely rallied past Finland on Tuesday before losing to Sweden, which lost 8-1 to Canada in the preliminary round. Parity has arrived -- and the world benefits from the U.S. loss.

"It's always been two countries that can win the gold," said Mats Naslund, the president of the Swedish Hockey Federation. "I think Canada is too much ahead in this Olympics, but it gives the girls a chance for the next Olympics to catch up."

[LionDen]

The US team has been playing like champions this year.