A Game Of Their Own

By Lawrence Mondi/Nagano

You didn't need a name like Wayne or Eric or Jaromir to be playing hockey in the Olympics last week. You could have been Angela Ruggiero, just 18, still in high school and with no driver's license. Or Lisa Brown-Miller, 31, married back in 1995 but so busy training and touring that she hasn't had time for a honeymoon. Or Katie King, 22, and Karyn Bye, 26, the team's leading goal scorers. Or you could be named Cammi (short for Catherine) Granato and be captain of the first U.S. Olympic women's hockey team ever. At 7:39 of the first period of their first game (against China), Granato, with assists from Jenny Schmidgall and Gretchen Ulion, scored the first ever U.S. women's Olympic goal. "It was nice to get a chance early and bury it," she beamed. "Now I don't have to worry about all those things hockey players worry about: hitting the post, getting snakebit and frustrated and off your game. For a second I let myself feel it. I sat down on the bench and said, 'That's pretty cool. I just scored a goal in the Olympics.' Then it was back to business."

While there are differences between the men's and women's games--slap shots aren't as hard, and full body checking is not allowed among the women--play is just as intense and often very rough. No body checking usually means a fast-moving game grounded in the essential techniques of passing and stick handling. The hockey of the U.S. women's team is a skill sport. Says Mike Eruzione, captain of the "miracle on ice" 1980 U.S. men's Olympic team: "They have great feet and keep the game very basic. They are really a pleasure to watch."

The team's first two matches, though, were a little harried. The morning of the opening game, "the butterflies were going," Granato says. "Finally, we were starting." The U.S. followed up its 5-0 win over China with a 7-1 win over Sweden, and both games were tougher than the scores would indicate. Both China and Sweden tend to play back in their own zone and do a lot of clutching and grabbing, almost like an outclassed prizefighter hoping to go the distance with the champion. As a result, the transitions and fast feet that are so typical of the women's game were missing. The defensive styles made for some ugly hockey. Neither victory was easy. "They're a team I don't want to see again, I can tell you that," U.S. coach Ben Smith said of the Chinese.

The skaters loosened up against Finland, a team that, though lacking the depth of the U.S. or Canada, has enough talent to pull off an upset on any given night. With the U.S. up 2-1 in the second period, the fast Finnish forward Hanna-Riikka Nieminen tied the score with an unassisted shorthanded goal. But defenseman Tara Mounsey responded with a goal less than two minutes later, and the defense held on for a 4-2 win. Game 4 was a blowout--10-0 against Japan--as King (who had four goals last week) pulled a hat trick.

All that set up the perpetual clash: the U.S. vs. Canada, which is not only the No. 1 seed in the tournament, but also has won all four women's world championships dating back to 1990. America has always been runner-up. In their 32-game pre-Olympic tour, the U.S. women faced Canada 13 times and won six. By the time the Olympics are over, the two teams will have played twice in physical matchups with both sides skating aggressively, as in all their games. In the last game of the preliminary round (a supposedly "meaningless" warm-up to the gold-medal match), the U.S. rebounded from a 4-1 deficit early in the third period to defeat Canada 7-4. Granato and forward Laurie Baker each scored twice. Emotions ran high throughout, and a total of 20 penalties was assessed. The rivalry will continue beyond this week's final and the awarding of the gold medal. Says U.S. coach Smith: "We see them in our sleep."

The team worked hard at enjoying the Olympic experience as well. In Osaka, where nearly all the 196 U.S. Olympians were "processed" before heading off to Nagano, the 20-woman team went on a free shopping spree. Armed with a checklist and a grocery cart and assisted by former Olympians like five-time gold-medal speed skater Bonnie Blair and two-time weight-lifting gold-medalist Tommy Kono, the hockey players wheeled around the ballroom of an Osaka hotel grabbing clothing, including uniforms, jackets, hats and awards-ceremony outfits worth about $4,000. At the opening ceremonies, they learned from the veteran Olympic bobsledders that the best place to be seen as the U.S. delegation enters the stadium is either at the front or the rear. The women decided they wanted to be at the back. But so did the snowboarders. "It was a friendly battle of the new sports," says Sandra Whyte, a five-time national team member from Saugus, Mass. At the end, the boarders let them slide.

Touring together for the five months before the Olympics has blended the team into a communal whole. Says Granato: "We're a bunch of sisters now. We're each other's family." But at the Games they also kept in constant touch with older friends and family, often tapping out E-mail at the cyber-Surf Shack set up by IBM in the Olympic Village. On the morning of the day she had dreamed about since she was a young girl, Granato read a poem given to her by her brother Robby. The words brought back memories of their hockey-playing childhood. She has an impeccable pedigree: four hockey-playing brothers, including Tony, a 1988 Olympian who skates for the NHL's San Jose Sharks. The six Granato kids spent just about every minute of their free time on the ice. Mostly they skated on the pond near their home in Downers Grove, Ill. Sometimes it was in the basement, where they used balled-up tissue as a puck. "It was perfect," Granato says of the poem. "He said that our family would be watching, and it gave me this confidence that I'm going to play my heart out. It's easier to play hard because your adrenaline is flowing."