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I HOCKEY: Women beat Team U SA 2-0 in the final I Friday,Fehruary2 5. 2010 Ettth tritium. L519-37e~225om.317 - bwaller@lhesunllmes.ca ANDRE FORGET QMI AGENCY Team Canada shows off their gold medals after beatmg their biggest rtva|,Team USA. 24? at Canada Hockey Place in Vancouver on Thursday night. Canada’s golden girls STEVE BUFFERV QMI Agency V/tNtitntuilt 7 the us. um! « .tnadd tn \mmt-n'x ice hockey h 4. grtdlnhiln Hut MI i» Bull uml Hutl Lite \nd m-utm ltulnngk‘ m the Uh‘r'u’llt (hung-x Nutlung tm t‘l‘tantzt'tl m the 1: years mum-m nu llutkuy has been nail nl (tn: Lllvnlpit pmgmm. l’tultmtnurt‘ ruund gamu m a sldllglflf‘l \l‘umt-tt'fi hm‘kny is .1 dual l'llUL‘l dtmtmed tlS an full» blown Olympic (Wm, added in the program in [mm It) halamu the gendL‘r numbL‘rS. 10C pm:- dent lacqltefi llnggt’ mid prior -.. lltttrsdays gultl medal game 'lml tlw \pnrl llils [u nnprnve, ur else. ‘We t‘unnut tuntinttt: \\ttJ'.0ut tmpmvcmsnt." I... Saul \llll. whencwx tlic two North American learns "It‘l'l, there's llllL'anty and mugu and even mmc halved H s het lll’llP rm? til the uncut nmlnm m spun, And lnr lll.L‘ tltlv. t‘t’crv lotxt yt'itrs, til, I) lmgtvcn. And llm| day mt» 'llntrscay :tl uda llntke) tune. a, cit-mu L'uplurcd its third «might mymptr name: gulrl medal. an the hack of goal- tender Shannan Smilnttluh, whu matlc il number (1| huge glove was in the hm two periods to Leap the American; at bay. wartnt’mttp Pmtlm. :tn ldvyearv uld l'rttnt Beauceville. Qua. marked the atlaL‘k with two first- pennd goals as Canada prcxatled Ln. Antither Le}. ms special mums. a» Canada killed um pair tn tum-man advantang lor the llh But in the dd): leading up tn the gnld medal final. as the Yanks. and Canucks steam~mlled um shell»>liuc‘>:etl Europeans nntl I: as: \vlmpEm began In hualtl that the [LIE a gun); to wttnusly Examine thv \tabtlity ul tltt- L'Venl. Wlll‘l Rnuur finally speaking out. When the sport wag added in 1998. olficlals prnmtced that gradually the rest oithe world would catch up But clearly it hasn't. In fact, there’s evidence Lhfil it‘s gone the other way and the gap between the North Americans and the few other countries that can even field a team is growing. The Vancnuver organiz- |ng committee‘s computer lists the top 28 scoring leaders from the tournament and. prior to Thursday's medal games, they were all lrum the two teams The us. and Canada have out- scored their opponents by 4072 and 35-2 respecuully. Coincidence or not. the men's hockey statistics are placed oulr side the press tribute a! GM Place {or easy access by the medianBut to get the women‘s statistics. [hp press has to wander to the corn» puler station and-.pxj'nl their Own copies, . But all of that doesn't make games between Canada and the U.S. any less heated. American forward Jenny Porter called it “an intense dis~ like" between. the players, WhJCh goes back to the first Olympic tournament in Nagano. 12 years ago. sieve. bufleqy®sunmedm ca