The Winter Olympics should be interesting if Friday night's U.S.-Canada game is any indication of what to expect in Sochi. Officials handed out 10 fighting majors in the tuneup game after a massive brawl started with only eight seconds left.
Here is how it went down in Grand Forks, North Dakota: Canada forward Brianne Jenner took a run at U.S. defenseman Josephine Pucci. Teammate Jocelyne Lamoureux was not happy and went after Jenner. Other players on the ice took that as a cue to start fighting each other, and we had our second U.S.-Canada brawl since October. That's right, essentially the same scenario played out two months ago. Watch what happened in Friday's game below:
"I think we came in and defended our teammates, did what we had to do," Jocelyne Lamoureux told The Associated Press after the 4-1 win. "It's always going to be heated (against Canada). The intensity is always going to be there."
The Canadians did not seem all that surprised the game ended this way.
“It’s no different than any other rivalry in sport,” said Haley Irwin, who scored Canada's only goal. “That emotional part that came out at the end for both teams ...obviously you don’t want players to have major penalties, but emotions do run high in hockey.”
The U.S. is going into the Olympics as the reigning world champions after winning gold in April, so they know they have a target on their backs.
"We're prepared to play whatever game we have to play," U.S. coach Katey Stone said. "We'll go hard, we'll play clean, but if the game gets out of hand we'll manage that as well."
