U.S. meets Canada for gold
By Nicholas J. Cotsonika
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (KRT)
—Maybe it’s a sign.
As the U.S. women’s hockey team
beat Sweden in Tuesday’s semifi
nals, 4-0, some people held up a
piece of posterboard against the glass
by the bench. In blue letters was the
word “Michigan.” Below that was a
red heart. Below that more blue
letters spelled out the name “
Angela Ruggiero. ”
Friends, right? Family?
“I don’t know who that was,” said
Ruggiero, a defender who lives in
Harper Woods. “Just someone from
Michigan, I guess.”
Pause.
“That,” Ruggiero said, “was cool.”
Ruggiero, Brownstown Town
ship’s Shelley Looney and the other
Americans earned the right to face
archrival Canada in Thursday night’s
final. The Canadians beat Finland, 7
3, earlier in the day.
Four years ago at Nagano, Looney
scored the winning goal against
Canada as the Americans won the
sport’s first Olympic gold medal. The
Canadians won the next three world
championships.
The Americans went 8-0 against
Canada this season. Still, Looney
said she expected the final “to proba
Men’s
continued from page 7
the Pac-10 and longer even than
some national powers, including
Duke, Cincinnati and Florida.
The Ducks’ longest home-win
ning streak ever was 23 games,
spanning three seasons from 1937
to 1939. The Ducks won 15 in a row
in 1926 and 1927.
Senior Sayonara
Oregon will say farewell to sev
en seniors this weekend. Six are
players — Freddie Jones, Chris
Christoffersen, Anthony Lever,
Ben Lindquist, Mark Michaelis
and Kristian Christensen — and
one is a manager, Greg Lawrence.
The players will be honored in a
ceremony prior to Saturday’s con
test with Washington.
But as important as the formal
ceremonies will be the on-court
ceremonies, where some of the
younger players say they will try to
send off the seniors in style.
“The seniors have given up a lot
of things for this program, so we
want to win these last two to give
something back to them,” sopho
more forward Luke Jackson said.
“To go 16-0 at home your senior
year is really impressive,” sopho
more guard Luke Ridnour said.
“We want to send those seniors out
of here like that.”
The senior class is led by Jones,
who is currently on eight different
Oregon all-time top-10 statistical
lists. No other Duck in history can
make that claim.
Christoffersen has left his mark
on the all-time Oregon blocks list.
Despite not starting consistently
until this season, “Big Chris” ranks
seventh all-time in blocks and will
move into sixth with two more.
Lever has been on fire from
three-point land this season, and
will leave his mark on the record
books that way. Lever is on pace to
break the single-season three-point
efficiency mark at 49 percent.
Poll-land
Oregon moved a little this week
in the two nationally-respected
polls, the Associated Press and
ESPN/USA Today Coaches polls,
after a blowout win over Oregon
State on Saturday. The Ducks
moved up two places to 15th in the
AP poll and one spot to 17th in the
coaches poll.
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All,
bly be the best hockey you’ve ever
seen. ” The United States and Canada
are far ahead of the rest of the world
in women’s hockey.
How far? Although the Americans
blew out Sweden in one of the
biggest games of their lives, although
they took 32 shots to Sweden’s 10, no
one thought they played their best.
“I’m not sure the USA was going
all that they can,” Sweden’s Erika
Holst said.
Said Looney: “Sweden came out
strong, and I don’t think we came out
as hard as we could. It was good for
us to be able to play both ends of
hockey, getting ready for the next
game, I guess you could say. ”
Cammi Granato led the Americans
with two goals and an assist. Katie
King and Natalie Darwitz also
scored. Tara Mounsey and Krissy
Wendell each had two assists.
“They came out physical on us,”
King said. “The first and second peri
ods, we didn’t play like we can play.
Sweden’s style was frustrating. We
came back strong in the third period
and took it to them. ”
The Americans promised a better
effort against Canada.
“When the buzzer went off
tonight, it hit me that we’re in the
gold-medal game,” forward Julie
Chu said. “It should be a great battle
But that doesn’t mean there has
n’t been movement in other polls.
ESPN.com runs a “Power 16” poll,
ranking the top 16 teams in the
country by seeds. Oregon was a
fourth seed, after Stanford
knocked them out of the pool of
No. 3 seeds this week.
And in another official Poll That
Doesn’t Matter, the nation’s fans
continue to disrespect the Ducks.
ESPN, corn’s fan poll has the Ducks
ranked 18th nationally, behind
Wake Forest, which is ranked 20th
and 21st in the national polls.
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out there. I expect nothing less. ”
Canada 7, Finland 3
Trailing after two periods, 3-2, the
Canadians scored five times in
the third.
“I don’t think a freight train could
have stopped us,” Canada’s Tammy
Lee Shewchuk said. “Obviously, we
don’t like having three goals scored
against us. But we had to overcome
them. I like that we’ve been tested.
We could have collapsed, but we
didn’t. It shows the determination
that the girls have. ”
Therese Brisson and Hayley Wick
enheiser each scored twice. Cassie
Campbell, Jayna Hefford and Vicky
Sunohara also scored. Tiia Reima
scored twice and Katja Riipi once for
Finland, which will face Sweden in
the bronze medal game Thursday.
“We started off pretty well, but then
I think we started to panic,” Canada’s
Kelly Bechard said. “When you pan
ic, everybody wants to be the leader
and be the one to get the team going.
... I was quite surprised that Finland
had played so well and that we were
behind. But I think in the third period
we showed what we can do. ”
(c) 2002, Detroit Free Press. Distributed by
Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
Switching gears to local polls,
television station KEZI is finally
going to let you get that burning
opinion off your chest. They know
you’ve been thinking about it.
From the KEZI Web site: “Do
you think Ernie Kent should force
Luke (Ridnour) and Luke (Jackson)
to get haircuts, or do you like the
shaggy look?”
You can finally make your voice
heard.
E-mail sports reporter Peter Hockaday
atpeterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
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