The first of several delicious main courses at the Olympic hockey tournament is on tap today as the United States and Canada face off for the gold medal in women’s ice hockey.
The game, at 11 a.m. central time, happens 24 hours before the respective men’s teams play each other in the semifinals for the right to go to the gold medal game. it’s sure to be a 24 hours full of nerves, kvetching and amusingly blind patriotism.
Hey, the respective leaders of the country bet a case of beer on the outcome of each game. What’s more hockey than that?
The Canadians won the first round game 3-2, which included a controversial tie-breaking goal that happened after a whistle (a whistle that should have never been blown, but a whistle nonetheless). And there is a miles-long history between these two teams, which have simply owned women’s hockey since the sport was originally brought onto the world stage.
They just plain don’t like each other very much, and it adds an extra bit of intrigue to their regular games, not to mention the ones with actual Olympic gold on the line.
If you’re looking for a place to watch the game online and you have a cable subscription that includes NBC, you can find the a stream here via the official website.
Earlier today, the Swiss women stormed back with four goals in the third period to defeat Sweden 4-3 for the bronze medal. Maybe they could teach their men’s team a thing or two about offense…
Enjoy your heartburn over the next day. I’ll just be over here in the corner as a big ball of nerves. That’s what the Olympics is really about, right?