If it weren't for the nightmare in Nagano, Canada would be considered a shoo-in to win the 2000 world women's hockey championship, which begins today in Mississauga.
The Canadian women are undefeated (25-0-0) and have won the gold medal at all five world championships. The United States claimed the silver and Finland the bronze in all five. Canada, however, received a rude awakening when it was upset 3-1 by the United States in the gold-medal game of the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, just a few nights after blowing a 4-1 third-period lead and losing 7-4 to the Americans in the preliminary round.
Many of Canada's best players are members of the North York Beatrice Aeros club, which has battled through two nailbiters in the past month -- first to win the national championship in overtime, then the National Women's Hockey League title. Going to the well for the third time could be tough.
The two North American teams must be considered heavy favourites to reach the final, with Finland an outsider. The remaining five countries will fight it out for three more free rides to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Based on the finish at last year's world tourney in Finland, the three berths should go to Sweden, China and Russia, but Germany and Japan are here to say they won't.
The teams placing seventh and eighth must join the first- and second-place finishers in this year's world B pool tourney, Kazakstan and Switzerland, in a separate competition next year to determine the final two Olympic spots.
The Germans maintained their position in the A pool by beating Switzerland in a playoff for seventh place last year in Finland. Japan was promoted to the A pool after trouncing Norway 7-1 in the gold-medal game of the 1999 world B pool tourney in France. Canada Forward Hayley Wickenheiser of Shaunavon, Sask., has excellent speed and tremendous determination. She's generally regarded as the best all-round player in the world. Geraldine Heaney of Toronto, a defender with great poise, is seeking her sixth consecutive world championship gold medal, and captain Thérèse Brisson of Montreal is an experienced rearguard. Coach Mel Davidson also relies heavily on Jayna Hefford of Kingston, who was the tournament's all-star centre last year, and Danielle Goyette of Saint-Nazaire, Que., the leading scorer at the 1998 Olympic tournament. Winnipeg native Sami Jo Small, a mechanical engineering graduate of Stanford University, and Kim St-Pierre of Chateauguay, Que., are outstanding goaltenders. They allowed only one goal each during last year's championship. China Hong Guo, nicknamed the Great Wall of China after she blocked 38 shots in a 1-0 loss to Canada a few years ago, used to represent half the Chinese team. Now China has a second goalie, Lina Huo, who has reached the same level and that spells trouble for opposition shooters. The Chinese imported hockey from the Soviet Union in 1952. In fact, the northern city of Harbin, where China's best players hail from, has a huge Russian influence. But in the fall of 1997, the Chinese team also spent three months in Edmonton preparing for the Olympic tournament. The Chinese are strong physically and like to clog the defensive zone, but Hongmei Liu is a standout on the attack. Liu scored eight goals at the 1994 worlds to place second in the tournament. Finland Only a lack of team depth separates the Finns from the Canadians and the Americans. Kirsi Hanninen, who has the excellent acceleration required by a rushing defender, placed third in scoring at last year's worlds with five goals and 10 points. Tiia Reima, a former member of the Finnish national junior women's soccer team, makes up for her lack of size (5-foot-2) with superb skills. Although just 5-foot-4, forward Sari Fisk has great determination, and defender Katja Lehto, 5-foot-3, is one of the team's most accomplished skaters. Tuula Puputti, who plays for the University of Minnesota at Duluth, will probably start in goal. Germany Women's hockey in Germany started in 1974 in the Bavarian Alps. Now the country's top league has an all-star game and skills competition similar to the National Hockey League's. Right winger Steffie Fruhwirt won the award for the fastest skater at this year's dream game skills test and centre Maritta Becker recorded the hardest shot. Michaela Lanzl and Bettina Evers are two of the team's most reliable performers, and Raffi Wolf is one of the best scorers at the University of Maine. Japan Masako Sato, who stars for Laval Le Mistral of Canada's National Women's Hockey League, was selected Japan's best player at the 1999 world B pool tournament in France. Since 1985, when they sent teams to play exhibition games in British Columbia and Alberta, the Japanese have spent a lot of time and money visiting Canada to learn more about the game. The Japanese qualified for the 1998 Olympics only because they were the host team. They failed to win a game in Nagano. Nevertheless, the girls from the Land of the Rising Sun play an exciting brand of hockey. Like the country's men's team, the Japanese women are quick and skilled, but lack size. Russia Unlike their male counterpart, which has been a dominant force in world hockey for nearly half a century, the Russian women's team was created only in 1994 and coaches don't have a lot of depth to work with yet. But the Russian women are picking up the game quickly. Following two tours of North America, they entered their first European B championship in 1995 and promptly won the gold medal. Ekaterina Pashkevich, a six-foot, 190-pound forward, is the team star, although right winger Tatiana Tsareva was its top scorer at last year's world tourney. Pashkevich lives in the Boston area, where she plays for a senior team and coaches the women's squad at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Sweden Erika Holst, Sweden's best player, got her start playing in TV-Puck, a tournament launched for boys in 1959. In its first world championship match against Canada in 1990, Sweden took a 15-1 shellacking. Eight years later the Swedes held the Canadians to a 1-1 draw in an exhibition game a few days before the start of the 1998 Olympics and gave the perennial world champs a good game before bowing 5-3 in the Olympic tournament. Gunilla Andersson and Pernilla Burnholm are excellent defenders. While the American team has been improving rapidly with more competition against Canada on this side of the ocean, the Swedes have been taking tips from the more advanced female players in Finland. United States Coach Ben Smith, who produced the country's second miracle on ice, in Nagano, says captain Cammie Granato has an inner strength that surfaces when the game is on the line. A. J. Mlezcko, a solid forward who passed up the 1999 worlds to help Harvard University win the National Collegiate Athletic Association title, is back in the lineup. Forward Karyn Bye has an excellent shot and is dangerous on power plays. Natalie Darwitz, 16, and Krissy Wendell, 18, a pair of teen-age phenoms, are battling for spots on the team. Darwitz has speed to burn and Wendell, who once played baseball in the Little League World Series, has scored 219 goals for her high school team over the past two seasons. The Americans, however, will suffer from the loss of their top defender, Tara Mounsey, who was sidelined with a knee injury in March. An expert in international hockey, Denis Gibbons has worked as Director of Information-Ice Hockey for ABC Sports and CBS Sports at the last four Winter Olympics. He resides in Burlington, Ont.