St. Thomas community members showed up to Scooter’s for a watch party in support of women’s hockey coach Joel Johnson as he coached Team USA in the gold-medal game Wednesday against Team Canada in the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
“I think it’s surreal to see your head coach in a gold-medal game,” graduate student defender Megan Cornell said.
Switzerland natives first-year defender Nicole Vallario and first-year goaltender Saskia Maurer lost 4-0 to Finland in the bronze-medal game Wednesday.
“I’m so excited for them,” senior forward Anna Solheim said. “And so proud of all they’ve done playing on the biggest stage in the world.”
Gold-medal match
The U.S. fell to Canada 3-2 in the gold-medal match Wednesday and Johnson will return to Minnesota with a silver medal around his neck.
Even with Johnson successfully challenging a goal, Canada led 2-0 after the first period. It added on a third goal with 10:52 left in the second.
U.S forward Hillary Knight scored, shorthanded, with 3:22 left in the second, bringing her team within two.
The U.S. netted the only third-period goal as forward Amanda Kessel scored with only 12 seconds left in regulation. The win gave Canada its fifth gold-medal win over the U.S. in Olympic history.
“We can’t get down that many goals. It’s really tough to bounce back,” Hillary Knight said to the Associated Press. “It’s devastating. It’s heartbreaking… It feels like we let our country down.”
Sam Larson can be reached at lars4378@stthomas.edu.