Olympics
Greg Wyshynski, ESPN 6y

Olympic hockey daily: U.S. women going for gold

Ice Hockey, Olympic Sports, NHL

A recap of the Pyeongchang Games men's and women's hockey tournaments, with a focus on Team USA's gold-medal quests.

Three Stars

1. Patrick Reimer, Germany

What the men's Olympic tournament has lacked in elite game play, it's made up for it with unpredictability. Look no further than Germany shocking Sweden 4-3 on Reimer's overtime goal -- a fantastic individual effort in the 4-on-4 that saw him take on three defensemen, and then get his own rebound off of goalie Viktor Fasth for the winner. (Hopefully Erik Gustafsson was able to find his clothes again after being undressed.) The last time a German team medaled in men's hockey? That would be West Germany in 1976, winning bronze.

2. Ben Scrivens/Kevin Poulin, Canada

Scrivens left Canada's game against Finland with an upper-body injury, after having stopped six shots in 24:17. With the game tied, former New York Islanders goalie Kevin Poulin entered the game and ... played really well. He stopped 15 shots to lead Canada to the 1-0 victory and a berth in the medal round. So we'll give both of these guys partial credit on their star.

3. Pavel Francouz, Czech Republic

He made 18 saves on 20 shots before the shootout, some of them above average. But the 27-year-old KHL netminder earns a star here because of his stellar goaltending in the shootout victory over Team USA, stopping all five shots he faced to make a single Czech goal stand up and leading his nation to the medal round with the 3-2 victory.

Results

Women's bronze medal: Finland 3, OAR 2

Men's quarterfinals: Czech Republic 3, USA 2 (SO); OAR 6, Norway 1; Canada 1, Finland 0; Germany 4, Sweden 3 (OT).

The Czechs and Russians face off in the semifinals, with the winner playing either Canada or Germany. And if you're NBC, you've never been a bigger fan of Canada and OAR.

What's up with the U.S. men's team?

They're done, eliminated by the Czech Republic, failing to make the medal round for the first time since Turin in 2006.

"The one thing that we wanted to make sure of when we came into this tournament is that when it ended we'd be proud of how we represented our country," said coach Tony Granato. "I'm very proud of how we competed and how we played and how we represented our country from the start of the tournament to the end of it."

We broke down the five reasons the U.S. came up short here.

Two silver linings:

  • Fans of the Boston Bruins, Minnesota Wild and Anaheim Ducks should be drooling over what Ryan Donato, Jordan Greenway and Troy Terry showed them in this tournament.

  • The Americans can hope that next time, it's the Auston Matthews generation vying for gold instead of a team of random parts from random places.

What's up with the U.S. women's team?

The puck drops at 11:10 p.m. ET tonight for one of the most anticipated hockey games of the year: USA vs. Canada for Olympic women's gold. The U.S. is seeking its first gold since Nagano in 1998. Canada is seeking its fifth straight gold in this lopsided rivalry.

"You literally train four years for one game," U.S. forward Jocelyn Lamoureux-Davidson told ESPN. "The time it takes to get to this point ... the amount of work and the sacrifices. This is what we wanted, a chance for a gold medal."

Their 5-0 victory over Finland showed an offensive spark that the Americans were seeking throughout this tournament. They'll need that again versus the Canadians, who have defeated them in five straight games.

Tune in tonight for what truly is the pinnacle of women's hockey.

In the next 24 hours

Women's gold-medal game: Canada vs. USA, 11:10 ET p.m.

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