CANADIAN women’s ice hockey team took down the defending champion the United States 3-2 in the final to get their fifth Olympic title at the Beijing Winter Olympics on Thursday. Canada was hungry for revenge after a 3-2 shootout defeat to the U.S. in the final of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2018 and the side beat the Americans 4-2 in the preliminary round in Beijing. Canadian forward Sarah Nurse scored at 7:50, which was her fifth goal in Beijing, and 30-year-old captain Marie-Philip Poulin of Canada put the puck into the net at 15:02 to widen the lead to 2-0 in the first period. Poulin became the only hockey player, female or male, to score in four Olympic gold medal games after she scored in the finals in Vancouver 2010, Sochi 2014 and Pyeongchang 2018. Poulin scored her sixth goal in Beijing at 29:08, before 32-year-old American forward Hilary Knight threw the puck into the net at 36:39 to cut the deficit to 3-1, which was the 2018 Olympic gold medalist’s sixth goal in Beijing. American forward Amanda Kessel scored their last goal at 59:47 in power play. The red Maple Leaf set a new scoring record of 57 goals in seven games in the Winter Olympics. Canada and the U.S. have won all the seven gold medals since the women’s ice hockey tournament entered Winter Olympics program in 1998. The Canadians won the four games in the preliminary round and rolled over Sweden and Switzerland in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively. The Americans had a 3-1 win-loss record in the preliminary round and took down the Czech Republic and Finland in the quarterfinals and semifinals to book a rematch against Canada in the final. The bronze medal went to Finland for the third time since the women’s competition debuted after the side shut out Switzerland 4-0 in Wednesday’s contest. “It’s just so good. It’s a great feeling. It was one hell of an effort. This is redemption,” said Poulin after the final whistle. Teammate Sarah Fillier added: “It is insane. I can’t stop shaking. It’s a dream come true. “That was the longest game of hockey I ever played,” said Canada’s Nurse — clearly relieved to hear the final whistle. “We knew we were going to end up with the gold medal when we woke up this morning. We just had to stick to our process. This is a dream comes true.” The Americans settled for their fourth silver medal, with all losses coming against Canada. Poulin scored both goals to seal Canada’s 2-0 gold-medal win over the U.S. at the 2010 Vancouver Games. Four years later at Sochi, Poulin scored in overtime to seal the gold-medal win over the Americans again. It’s been a long and bumpy road back for the Canadians, who were forced to reinvent themselves in three years under coach Troy Ryan. The low point followed Canada settling for bronze at the 2019 world championships, which marked the first time in tournament history the country failed to reach the title game. At Beijing 2022, the Canadians out-classed the field by outscoring opponents by a combined margin of 57-10, including a 4-2 win over the U.S. in group play last week. The U.S. didn’t have enough defense to contain the Canadians’ aggressive forechecking attack, nor the offense to match them, especially without top center Brianna Decker, who broke her left leg in the tournament opener. The Americans entered the game ranking fifth of 10 teams in scoring efficiency with just 28 goals on a tournament-leading 334 shots. (SD-Xinhua) | 