Skip to content

LEAGUES News

Canada's Daoust: 'Painful' to miss out on gold medal

Pool / Getty Images Sport / Getty

GANGNEUNG, South Korea (AP) Meghan Agosta swooped to her left and then circled back right as she skated toward the goal. She had already scored once in the shootout and Canada needed her to deliver in the extra round to avoid its first Olympic loss since the 1998 finals.

She shot.

The puck hit U.S. goalie Maddie Rooney in the pad, and then skittered toward the crease, inching toward the goal line.

With a final, gold medal-clinching flick of her glove, the goalie swiped the puck away, securing a 3-2 overtime victory for the Americans and sending Canada home with a silver medal so unsatisfying that defenseman Jocelyne Larocque took hers off immediately after it was draped around her neck.

''There's not a lot of words that can describe how you feel,'' said Canada coach Laura Schuler, who was a member of the team that took silver in Nagano 20 years ago. ''It was a great game of hockey. It's what we expected: back and forth hockey.''

Women's hockey has long been dominated by the North Americans, who have claimed every Olympic gold medal since the sport was added to Winter Games in 1998 and met in the finals five of the six times.

So while a silver medal might be a nice consolation for a skier or skater, in this tournament all it means is that you lost the only game that matters.

''This medal really hurts,'' said forward Melodie Daoust, who has a gold medal from Sochi and had an acrobatic goal to give Canada a brief, 2-1 lead in the shootout. ''It's painful.''

A four-time Olympian who had never lost a game before Thursday, Agosta was seeking to tie the record of four gold medals set by three of her teammates in Sochi. She has 17 goals in the Winter Games - one short of the record - and she also scored on the second Canadian attempt in the shootout to knot the tiebreaker 1-1.

But when Schuler went back to her when the game remained tied after the original five shootout rounds, Agosta fell just short.

After 60 minutes of regulation, another 20 in overtime and six rounds in the shootout, that's all that mattered. Canada's streak of four straight Olympic titles was over.

''It becomes more individual and less of a team thing, so a little harder to swallow,'' Canada goalie Shannon Szabados said. ''But (it's) the way it goes.''

---

More AP Olympic coverage: https://wintergames.ap.org

RELATED NEWS

Tyler O'Neill is the first player in MLB history to homer in...
O'Neill hits HR in 5th consecutive Opening Day game to set record 💪
The @AnaheimDucks strike 44 seconds apart on the same penalt...
Lundestrom, Silfverberg score shorthanded goals 44 seconds apart 🦆
Logan Cooley's second of the game was a BEAUTY! 😍
Cooley with the moves in front for Coyotes' 4th straight goal 🕺
This spinning pass from Conor Garland is a sight to behold! ...
Garland sets up Miller with brilliant spinning pass 💫
BIG. GOAL. BARBIE.
Barbashev's late goal serves as dagger to Jets 🗡️
DEJOUNTE MURRAY IS HIM AGAIN
Dejounte sinks Celtics with 0.1 left in OT