By Kathy McAdam /
“Women’s hockey is very special in Canada,” said Sara Benz, forward on Team Switzerland, “we play hockey, here, you live hockey.”
Sara had just scored a tournament total of six goals helping her team to a seventh place finish in the inaugural International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s Under-18 World Championships.
The tournament, held in Calgary during the week of January 5 to 12, 2008, came down to the two teams everyone expected to battle for gold.
For the powerhouse Canadian and U.S. teams, the round robin games had them barely working up a sweat.
Going into the final game both teams were cautiously optimistic.
“We have to work hard, do what we know we can do, listen to our coaches and play for each other,” said Brooke Ammerman of Team USA.
For Team Canada, there was a little more pressure with media questions about putting up the same results as the World Junior men’s team and having family and friends at all the games.
“I’ve got seven or eight family members here cheering me on. It makes me even more excited and eager to play,” said Tara Watchorn.
Coach Mel Davidson liked her team’s performance in the early rounds.
“This team is fast-paced, quick, tenacious, talented,” she said.
However Canada’s speed was no match for the scoring skills and outstanding goaltending of Team USA. On the ice after her team’s decisive win, Team USA Head Coach Katie Stone analyzed their performance.
“The Canadians are faster, we had to change our neutral zone forecheck,” she said. “Goaltending was the difference tonight…Our girls needed to be hungrier, to play with pressure, we told them ‘if you’re going to make a mistake, make it at 100 miles per hour, not 30.’”
For the Canadians, a loss in this first ever tournament cut deep. The dejected Canadian players found themselves watching the USA receive gold medals.
“I thought they played well,” said Marie-Philip Poulin, named best forward in the tournament. “We missed our chances on the powerplay.”
Canadian sniper Carolyn Prevost was impressed with her opponents, “The U.S. is a talented team. We didn’t see them play, so we didn’t know what to expect from them.” She expressed how she and her Canadian teammates were feeling, “It’s a pretty tough loss for us, we are all so close.”
Coach Davidson was impressed with her team.
“I thought they handled the pressure well, she said. “I was proud of them standing on the blue line.”
Both coaches expressed the fact that the U.S. and Canadian teams are often in a teeter-totter battle for first place.
“On any day you can slide a piece of paper between us and the U.S.,” said Mel Davidson.
The Czech Republic won the bronze medal with a 4-2 win over Sweden.
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