Women’s hockey in Beijing: History added to the greatest international rivalry of the last quarter-century

Feb 3, 2022 7:00 AM MST

By Dexter Zinman

BEIJING – Ten teams will be competing for women’s hockey’s highest honor come February, including team Denmark making its Olympic debut. 

However, unless a disaster of truly epic proportions unfolds, the gold medal for this Olympic Games will be draped once again around the necks of one of North America’s titans, just as it has been since women’s hockey debuted in Nagano, 1998.

It is difficult to pin-point a favorite between the United States and Canada this go-round. Any answers will likely be split along international border-lines. It has been simple in the past, Canada was the favorite while the U.S. had a decent chance of upsetting in the final. 

But then the United States ended a 20 year Olympic gold medal drought in Pyeongchang. 

Now they are the defending gold medalists, a position the team hasn’t been in since Salt Lake City in 2002. But still, the conversation for who is favored is complicated. 

The United States will try to repeat as Olympic gold medalists for the first time. The Canadians will try to take it back, just as they did in Salt Lake, a victory that started a streak of four straight Olympic golds for the “Blanc et Rouge.” 

Canada and the United States have traded wins in world championships and NHL All-Star Game scrimmages between Pyeongchang and Beijing, and although the U.S. has the distinction of defending champions, the Canadians may be entering the tournament with more momentum in their favor. 

The My Why Tour, a group of friendlies played between the two nations to promote the women’s game, recently came to a premature end due to COVID-19 issues. 

However, the last two games played were won by Canada on the United States’ makeshift home ice of St. Louis, Missouri. Both games were won in overtime, and both overtime goals were scored by Canada’s captain Marie-Philip Poulin. 

Poulin has also previously scored an overtime goal to win the 2021 World Championship for the Canadians. A symbolic hat trick. 

Canada would love for Poulin to score another American-dispatching golden goal. A gold medal win would be the country’s 5th in the seven Olympics the event has been played in.   

The Americans hope to be fueled by those defeats. Players like American captain Kendall Coyne-Schofield and world championship all-time goal scoring leader Hilary Knight will look to do what the previous generation of team USA could not, repeat.