On Opposite Sides

Both the United States and Canadian Olympic women’s hockey teams are stocked with Harvard players: forwards Jennifer Botterill ’02-’03 and Tammy Shewchuk ’00-’01 on Team Canada, and forward Julie Chu ’06 and defensemen A.J. Mleczko ’97-’99 and Angela Ruggiero ’02-’04 on Team USA. Just three years ago, Ruggiero, Mleczko, Shewchuk and Botterill all teamed up to lead Harvard to a national title in 1999. Now on opposite sides of the ice at the Olympics, they still maintain pride in each other’s accomplishments—the latest being Ruggiero’s selection as a U.S. flagbearer in Friday’s opening ceremonies.

“I think it is a great thing for Harvard that Rugger was chosen to carry something so important,” wrote Shewchuk in an e-mail message. “Even though we are competing against each other, I am still very proud of her.”

All five Harvard women’s hockey players in the Olympics have made a major impact in international competition in the past year, and there’s no reason to doubt they’ll do the same in this Olympics. And contrary to what the national prognosticators are saying, the outcome of the Gold Medal game on Feb. 21 is hardly predictable.

Botterill, who scored the goal that clinched the Crimson’s national championship in 1999, and Shewchuk—Harvard’s all-time leading career scorer—have dismissed the notion propagated by the national media that the Americans’ perfect 8-0 record against Canada in pre-Olympic exhibitions makes them a clear gold medal favorite.

“The games we have played up to this point have been prep games,” Shewchuk said. “And I am confident, as are my teammates, that we have all the tools and the ability to pull it off in the end. We know that it will be a battle, but it is one we are ready for.”

“Honestly our team feels fantastic,” Botterill added. “We really respect the United States for playing great hockey in the fall, but our season long focus with our training has been peaking for the Olympics. And I think we’ve learned something from every game this year. Our team really believes in itself.”

Before the United State’s eight-game winning streak began in October, the majority of prognosticators favored the Canadians. After all, this is the same Canadian team that has won all but two major international championships throughout its history, the two exceptions being the 1997 Three Nations Cup and the 1998 Olympics. Canada has won all seven International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships.

And in the most recent of those championships in April of 2001, goals from two familiar Harvard faces—Shewchuk and Botterill—lifted a Canadian team that had been practicing together for just two weeks to a 3-2 victory over a U.S. team that had been training together in Lake Placid for seven months. Botterill was named World Championship MVP after leading the tournament with eight goals scored.

So if the U.S. and Canada meet in the gold medal game, which is about as sure a thing as there can be in sports, then those eight exhibition results mean nothing. The U.S. is well aware of this fact.

“It was a great tour for us, and we’re very happy with it, but this is a whole new ballgame,” said defenseman Karen Bye, a member of the U.S. National Team since 1992.

The Olympic tournament format has a new look this year. The field has been expanded from six teams to eight. The preliminary round splits the competitors into two four-team round-robin pools, with the top two teams in each pool advancing to the semifinals.

The U.S. plays Germany (tomorrow, 1 p.m.), China (Feb. 14, 6 p.m.) and Finland (Feb. 16, 1 p.m.) while Canada takes on Kazakhstan (today, 1 p.m.), Russia (Feb. 13, 1 p.m.) and Sweden (Feb. 16, p.m.) in the preliminary round.

In the most recent world championship, Canada’s 3-2 win over the U.S. in the gold medal game was the only close contest either team had to play. All other U.S and Canada wins were by four goals or more.

In the 2000 championshps, neither team was as dominant. Finland lost to both by just a goal.

Unlike other nations, the U.S. and Canadian teams have been training together since the summer. In fact, the vast majority of U.S. players have been together for two years.

National teams such as Sweden and Finland have, by contrast, allowed their players to continue to play in Divison I colleges this year, which could make the U.S. and Canada even more dominant.

But both of the gold-medal game favorites are making the typical promises not to overlook any opponent.

“You never know,” Botterill said. “You certainly need to be ready for every game.”

“Everybody’s asking us about the gold medal game when we haven’t even played our preliminary games yet,” said U.S. women’s team captain Cammi Granato. “Our goal is obviously to get there, but we have to take it one step at a time.”