Toronto Star Sports
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Canada's the best, but not by much
By Alan Adams - Toronto Star Sports Reporter
October 28, 1996 

URL: http://www.thestar.com/thestar/editorial/sports/961028SPD8_ALANW.html


OTTAWA - It won't even be a footnote in the history texts, but don't
play down the significance of Canada's triumph in yesterday's final of
the Three Nations Cup hockey tournament.

With the world championships set for next April and the Winter
Olympics 15 months away, the message that was delivered loud and clear
is that the gap has closed in women's hockey and the Canadians can ill
afford to be confident of anything when they take on the world in
Kitchener before vying for gold at the Games in Nagano, Japan.

Canada retained its world No. 1 ranking at the Civic Centre, beating
the United States, the second-ranked team, 1-0 on a goal by Nancy
Deschamps at 11:30 of the third period.

No. 3-ranked Finland finished third.

``Every tournament we go into now, it's getting tougher and tougher,''
said Karen Nystrom of Scarborough. ``We are getting stronger but they
(the U.S. and No. 3 Finland) are getting stronger. We have to keep
looking back to see who is coming.''

The score mirrored the game, which featured superb goaltending and
some impressive offensive plays.

``We deserved that game for sure,'' said Angela James of Toronto.

The Canadians were outshot 27-20 but out-chanced the Americans by a
margin of 2 to 1. U.S. goalie Erin Whitten was just short of superb
and there was little she could do when Deschamps slapped a rebound
into the short side.

``I'm going to keep going over that play in my mind,'' said Whitten.
``I did see the initial shot but was too far over in the net to get
the rebound.''

After the Canadians went ahead, the Americans turned their game up a
notch, and ran into a tired opponent, which made for a wild finish.

The Canadians took a penalty with 1:10 remaining in the game and went
down by two bodies with 19 seconds left when Geraldine Heaney of
Weston was sent off for delay of game for falling on the puck in a
scramble.

The 3,600 fans in the Civic Centre, who paid $5 for the game, were on
their feet chanting, ``Canada, Canada'' as the women killed off the
time clock and then mobbed goalie Danielle Dube.

``It was very tense,'' said Vicki Sunohara of Scarborough. ``The legs
were getting tired but everybody was on the edge.''

The Canadians are strong in net, so strong that Manon Rheaume, the
only woman to play in an NHL game, was used sparingly in the round
robin and was a scratch yesterday.

``It's a nice problem to have, having three top goalies,'' coach
Shannon Miller said.


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