Let's start with a confession: I almost didn't stay up for the U.S. women's hockey team's thrilling 3-2 shootout win over Canada in Wednesday night/Thursday morning's gold medal game. I nodded off after putting my oldest daughter to bed and woke up at the end of the first period in a serious haze. The second period was a sleepy blur as I shook it off — much like it was for the Americans, I suppose, who led 1-0 after one period but trailed 2-1 after two.
But I made it. A lot of you did, too. If you bailed in the name of sleep, or if you just want to relive the glory of the U.S. victory, I'm here to help. Here are five must-see moments from the game:
1) I won't make you wait for the best moment of the night. We'll lead things off with Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson's goal in the sixth round of the shootout, which proved to be the winner. The hands and composure required to pull this sort of thing off in this specific situation … I can't even imagine. Play this loop over and over whenever you are sad. Pour it straight into your veins.
2) Of course, there wouldn't have been an overtime or a shootout or a gold medal if not for Monique Lamoureux-Morando, twin sister of Jocelyne, and this sweet breakaway goal late in the third period to tie the score 2-2.
3) U.S. goalie Maddie Rooney was stellar in the shootout, but this save near the end of overtime, with Canada on the power play, was even more remarkable. Canada thought it had just won the gold … until Rooney reached back with her stick and managed to keep the rebound out of the net.
4) The jubilation of winning gold and snapping Canada's streak of four consecutive gold medals in women's hockey? Yeah, the emotion was pretty amazing.
5) Silver isn't exactly the opposite of gold, but in this case it was as much an opposite as light and dark, hot and cold, pleasure and pain. There was no better illustration of Canada's disappointment than Jocelyne Larocque removing her silver medal immediately after it was placed on her.
