Comply with our newest protection of the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Brianna Decker was screaming, her agony audible to most everybody in an area that was practically empty on Thursday. The cries saved coming after the tangling collision, the primary interval’s clock stopped at 10:58.
American hockey officers later confirmed what most had instantly assumed: that Decker, one of the formidable and skilled gamers for the U.S. ladies’s group, wouldn’t be capable to play for the rest of the Video games, a harsh blow to the group’s ambitions to repeat as Olympic champions.
The US, which defeated Finland, 5-2, didn’t convey any reserves to Beijing. Coach Joel Johnson mentioned after the sport that he would discover his choices for any obligatory roster changes.
“It was terrible,” Kendall Coyne Schofield, the American captain, mentioned of the second when Decker was injured in a collision with Ronja Savolainen of Finland. “There’s no different option to put it. It was actually powerful to see. She’s one of many hardest, strongest gamers on the earth, and so while you hear her react like that, clearly, it was devastating and nerve-racking for us.”
Decker, a ahead from Dousman, Wis., made her third Olympic roster simply 4 years after she had led the US in assists throughout its gold medal run on the 2018 Pyeongchang Video games. This 12 months, she has been an alternate captain.
After medical officers evacuated an alert and calm Decker from the ice on a stretcher, the Individuals responded swiftly. Amanda Kessel slowly approached the online alongside the purpose line, edged across the crease and, simply 21 seconds after play had resumed, scored the primary purpose of the match for the US.
Lower than three minutes later, Alex Carpenter scored on an influence play so as to add to the U.S. lead. Coyne Schofield added two targets for the Individuals within the second interval, and Carpenter scored once more within the third.
Susanna Tapani had two energy play targets for Finland within the third interval.
“It wasn’t due to the harm that we performed higher, however I feel there was some further emotion that happened inside all people,” Johnson mentioned.
Though the sport in opposition to Finland was primarily a glorified scrimmage — each groups had been already assured to advance to the match’s subsequent spherical — the matchup was a chance for each groups to take early measures of formidable rivals.
Finland gained the bronze in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018. Canada, which took silver that 12 months, beat Switzerland, 12-1, earlier on Thursday.
However Thursday was a expensive nightmare for the Individuals.
“This group has depth, and everybody has a task, and that position could change,” Coyne Schofield mentioned. “And it doesn’t matter what that position is, you must embrace it.”
She added: “You noticed that our line shifted when Brianna went down, and everybody did an incredible job stepping up. There’s no changing Brianna Decker in that scenario, however everybody stepped as much as the plate in the way in which they had been requested to.”
Who’s on the U.S. Ladies’s Hockey Group?
Alan BlinderReporting from the Beijing Olympics 
Who’s on the U.S. Ladies’s Hockey Group?
Alan BlinderReporting from the Beijing Olympics
The US ladies’s hockey group opened play as we speak in opposition to Finland. The Individuals gained gold in 2018 and are anticipated to contend this month in Beijing.
Let’s meet a few of the gamers →
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