Rivalry Now Smacks of Bitterness

Somebody said something to somebody. That much we know. Did a hockey player from the U.S. women’s team really taunt a Canadian opponent by making a remark about that player’s dead father?

Canada’s coach said she did. Her player went running off the Aqua Wing rink on her ice skates, in tears. That left an American player with a Harvard degree trying to explain herself, insisting that she would never stoop so low.

If a microphone at the Aqua Wing ice rink happened to pick up what was actually spoken, it could solve this mystery. It could also strain U.S.-Canada relations even further on the eve of hockey’s first Olympic gold-medal game for women.

Here are the principals:

Shannon Miller is an off-duty Calgary cop. On a leave of absence so she can coach Canada’s hockey team, Miller is an intense person, dressed almost always in black, with an intimidating stare that, in a given situation, any cop or coach would find useful.

Danielle Goyette, 32, is a left wing on Canada’s team. She is the Olympics’ leading scorer. A full-time hockey professional whose hobby is auto mechanics, Goyette is known for her toughness. In her first game back after her mother’s funeral in 1996, she scored three goals. In her first Olympic game, right after her father’s death, she scored three more.

Sandra Whyte, 27, is one of the U.S. team’s top forwards. She played hockey for Harvard, and has also coached there. Whyte’s hobby is “taking mellow bike rides.” Once, when asked her hockey fantasy, White, who wears No. 9 on her jersey, replied, “Gold medal game of the 1998 Olympics, USA crushes Canada, 5-0, and of course No. 9 scores two goals and adds a few assists.”

Whyte did not score in Saturday night’s 7-4 victory at Aqua Wing.

Her teammates, however, scored six times in the final period, after falling behind, 4-1. And when the game was over, after a traditional handshake with the opponents, the U.S. players formed a circle at mid-ice and raised their sticks to the crowd in triumph. That’s when somebody said something.

The two sides had taunted each other all night.

“Smack talk, we call it,” Whyte says.

Naturally, being hockey players, they also smacked each other. The game had 20 penalties. It was a particularly rough contest between bitter rivals who make no secret of their dislike for one another.

During the game, a 10-minute misconduct penalty was called against Angela Ruggiero for hitting a Canadian opponent from behind. Vicki Movsessian drew four minutes in the penalty box for sticking her stick into Goyette’s neck, drawing blood.

After the game, Canada’s coach, Miller, at first avoided the subject of what was spoken between Whyte and Goyette. She did say the game got “out of control,” however.

Miller gave an interview later that night, regarding Goyette.

“When something is said about [her] father, that is uncalled for,” the coach told a Canadian television network. “I was right there. She was bawling.”

On TV replays, White and Goyette could be seen exchanging words. Shelley Looney, another U.S. player, also got involved as the players left the ice. Goyette ran up the ramp on her skates, crying, ahead of her walking teammates.

Henri-Paul Goyette, 77, died in Quebec in late January, after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for some time. His daughter’s family urged her to go to Japan as planned. Canada opened play here by defeating Japan, 13-0, with Goyette getting a hat trick and dedicating these games to her dad.

No love is lost between the U.S. and Canada teams, who have met internationally 14 times, winning seven apiece.

But according to the Americans, things would never get that impersonal.

“All of us even signed and sent Danielle a sympathy card,” U.S. player Cammy Granato says.

Saturday night’s game had no bearing on the Olympic standings. The same two sides will play a 15th and final time Tuesday at the Big Hat arena for the gold medal.

But on a bitterly cold game inside the Aqua Wing ice rink, the day after the Whyte-Goyette incident, few of the U.S. players were asked what strategy they were planning for the big game. Instead, all the focus seemed to be on what provoked Goyette’s reaction.

The Canadians weren’t talking. They canceled practice, and issued a statement that “what’s done is done.”

Granato and her U.S. teammates believe Goyette misunderstood what was said in the heat of battle. Goyette speaks mainly French.

“Obviously there’s a big misunderstanding,” Granato says. “Sandra White is one of the most honest people I know. If she says she never said anything like that, I believe her totally. She’s too classy for that.

“I don’t know if this is something being used to give them [the Canadians] some sort of psychological edge.”

Rivalry or no rivalry, U.S. player Karen Bye recalls everybody volunteering to chip in on Goyette’s sympathy card.

Bye says, “They’re our opponents, but they’re human beings.”

U.S. Coach Ben Smith said the allegations by his Canadian counterpart were totally unfounded.

During the game, after Canada took a 4-1 lead, several U.S. players saw Miller behind the bench, laughing. When things began to get rough after Ruggiero’s penalty, a TV replay also shows the Canadian coach glaring in the Americans’ directions and mouthing a curse: “You . . .”

Granato said, “I know Shannon Miller was laughing. She was on the scoreboard [television]. Then things got really heated after the game.”

Here is Whyte’s version:

“After the game, words were exchanged, yes. Emotions were high. Believe it or not, things happen in hockey that way. We pummel each other out there.

“Nothing was said about her father. We all have the deepest sympathy for her there. It’s not appropriate to repeat what I did say. Obviously, it was unacceptable. But it’ll be gone tomorrow, and we can just think about winning the gold medal. It’s a heated sport, a contact sport, an intense sport. And we’re out there to win.”