GANGNEUNG, South Korea | The Americans and Canadians pushed, shoved and grabbed each other, sometimes from behind, sometimes mask to mask, and bodies were crashing to the ice repeatedly in front of the net.
Meghan Agosta and Sara Nurse each scored in the second period and defending Olympic champion Canada clinched the top spot in pool play by edging the United States 2-1 on Thursday in a rough-and-tumble early showdown between the dominant powers in women’s hockey. It could have been a mere preview of the battle for gold expected to come next week.
Genevieve Lacasse made 44 saves, including stopping Hilary Knight at the post inside the final 90 seconds. Brianne Decker hit two posts, the second in the final seconds, before the two rivals ended up in a scrum. Officials reviewed the final play and ruled no goal. The Canadians also had two goals disallowed earlier in a game that showed just how far these two teams are above the rest of the field — and how much they want to beat each other.
“It’s a rivalry,” U.S. coach Robb Stauber said of the physical play. “What else would anybody expect?”
Canada coach Laura Schuler was happy with the win, especially Lacasse’s performance.
“She played outstanding for us,” Schuler said.
Kendall Coyne scored the lone goal for the Americans.
Canada and the United States are the only countries to ever win women’s hockey gold at the Olympics. The Americans won in 1998 when women’s hockey joined the Olympics, while Canada is looking for a fifth straight title.
Figure skating
Germany’s Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot jumped from fourth place to Olympic gold in pairs figure skating after a record-setting free skate.
Savchenko and Massot scored 159.31 points in their program, which gave them 235.90 points overall. It is Germany’s first pairs gold since 1952.
China’s Sui Wenjing and Han Cong were the leaders coming into the day but slipped to silver after a slow start in their free skate. Canada’s Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford earned bronze.
More medals
• Pierre Vaultier of France defended his title in men’s snowboardcross. Vaultier barely qualified for the final after crashing during the semifinals but recovered to win his second Olympic gold medal. Australia’s Jarryd Hughes won silver and Spain’s Regino Hernandez got bronze. Americans Nick Baumgartner and Mick Dierdorff made the final but finished well back of the leaders.
• Norway’s Ragnhild Haga won her first gold medal in the women’s 10-kilometer freestyle, topping the field by more than 20 seconds. Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla won silver for her second medal of the Pyeongchang Games. Norway’s Marit Bjoergen and Finland’s Krista Parmakoski finished tied for bronze with identical times of 25 minutes, 32.4 seconds.
• Ted-Jan Bloemen of Canada won the 10,000 meters in an Olympic-record time of 12 minutes, 39.77 seconds. Defending champion Jorrit Bergsma of the Netherlands took silver in 12:41.99. Nicola Tumolero of Italy earned bronze in 12:54.32. Dutchman Sven Kramer finished a surprising sixth. He had dominated the distance race at every competition except the Olympics, where he has never won it.
• Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Boe won his first gold medal of the Winter Games in the 20-kilometer race after the world’s top biathlete, Frenchman Martin Fourcade, surprisingly missed on his final two shots. Slovenia’s Jakov Fak took home the silver. Austrian Dominik Landertinger earned bronze.
• Germany won the luge team relay, which was a history-making victory for Natalie Geisenberger. The German team of Geisenberger, Johannes Ludwig and the doubles pairing of Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt prevailed in 2 minutes, 24.517 seconds. Canada won silver and Austria won bronze. The U.S. finished fourth, missing a medal by about one-tenth of a second. Geisenberger has won five Olympic medals, the same as German legend Georg Hackl. Only Italy’s Armin Zoeggeler has more with six.
• Sweden’s Hanna Oeberg won gold in the 15-kilometer biathlon race. Slovakia’s Anastasiya Kuzmina won silver and Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier earned bronze.
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