Canada wins gold with dominating performance over Sweden, 4-1 Click here for game summary
There was to be no Swedish Mirakel at the expense of 2002 gold medalists Canada tonight at Palasport. Despite the amazing semi-final win by the Swedes over USA, they were no match for a team that scores far more goals than it gives up shots by the opposition. Tonight, the score was 4-1. The girls of Canada were golden again. Although they had all sorts of firepower, it was their play inside their own blueline that won this championship.
It was a nervous start for both teams, but Gillian Apps got rid of the butterflies just 3:15 from the opening faceoff when she skated in a large arc through the Swedish slot all the while on her backhand and then let go a simple shot along the ice that fooled goalie Kim Martin. It was Apps's 7th goal of the tournament, and it was a shot Martin should have saved, especially in light of her brilliant semi-final performance.
The game settled back into a cautious one, but Sweden, for all their efforts, could not establish puck possession in the Canadian end for any length of time, so good was the Canadian team defence. Charline Labonte was the starter for Canada, but the net could have been empty so strong were the five players in front of her. It wasn't so much that Canada had a huge lead as much as it was that any lead was insurmountable.
With a more controlled pace, the Canadians slowly but surely took over. They upped their lead at 12:13 on a gorgeous pass by Jennifer Botterill to Caroline Ouellette. Botterill skated down the left side and waited for Ouellette to go to the net. Despite being covered by Jenny Lindqvist, Ouellette got her stick on the puck and flicked it by Martin.
Shots in the first were 11-2 for Canada. It marked one of the few times in the tournament that the opposition had as many shots as Canada had goals in a period.
Canada almost increased the lead to 3-0 at the start of the second when Apps made a lovely drop pass to Wickenheiser who went in alone only to be stoned by Martin. Wickenheiser got her revenge a few minutes later when she carried the puck from centre in and around the Swedish goal and fed Cherie Piper in the slot. Piper made no mistake with her wrist shot, and that more or less solidified the game. Canada, after all, had given up one goal in international competition since 2004 (that to Sweden in the round robin).
Another beautiful pass Botterill to Hefford less than two minutes later made clear the gold medal was heading back to Canada.
The Swedes made things marginally interesting early in the third when they scored on a power play. Gunilla Andersson blasted a point shot that eluded the screened Labonte on the short side to make it 4-1. That's as close as they got.
Wickenheiser led the women's side of the Olympics with 17 points and was named tournament MVP just as she was in 2002. The Directorate Awards went to Wickenheiser as Best Forward, Angela Ruggiero as Best Defenceman, and Kim Martin as Best Goalie. The media All-Stars have Martin in goal, Ruggiero and Carla MacLeod (CAN) on defence, and Wickenheiser, Apps, and Rooth as the forwards.
- Andrew Podnieks
IIHF.com Olympic writer
Für die zweite große Überraschung für die Schwedinnen hat es am Ende nicht gereicht: Im gestrigen olympischen Eishockeyfinale zwischen Team Canada und den schwedischen Frauen konnten sich die hoch favorisierten Kanadierinnen klar durchsetzen und gewannen am Ende mit 4:1 (2:0, 2:0, 0:1) ihr zweites olympisches Gold nach Salt Lake City 2002.

Die Kanadierinnen dominierten dieses Spiel wie auch bereits das gesamte Turnier, ließen im gesamten Spiel nur acht Schüsse auf ihr Tor zu, während sie von ihren 26 immerhin vier verwandelten. Doch auch die Schwedinnen konnten sich im Vergleich zum ersten Aufeinandertreffen beider Teams in diesem Turnier klar steigern und phasenweise mithalten.