Women’s Hockey Team Has a Veteran Presence

Fourteen members of the U.S. team that won the first women’s Olympic hockey tournament at Nagano in 1998 were among the 20 players named to the roster Monday for the Salt Lake City Winter Games, among them veteran forward Cammi Granato and goaltenders Sara DeCosta and Sarah Tueting.

In making the final cut, Coach Ben Smith released forwards Annamarie Holmes and Carisa Zaban before players left their Lake Placid, N.Y., training base for a Christmas break. The U.S. women are 21-0-0 on their pre-Olympic tour, which resumes Dec. 29 with the four-team Holiday Tournament at Lake Placid, where the U.S. will play Russia in the first round.

The American women have outscored their opponents, 166-16, and have an 18-7 margin in their five victories over Canada, considered the only team with a chance of upsetting them at Salt Lake City.

“It’s a little of something old, something new, something borrowed and something flexible, with a lot of people who can play different positions,” Smith said of the roster. “We’ve moved people between forward and defense and from center to the wing or to their off sides, so they should be able to make an adjustment to any unfortunate situation that might arise, and we won’t have to put people into situations where they’re not comfortable.”

Granato, 30, is the team’s oldest player--and its leading scorer, with 23 goals, 18 assists and 41 points in 19 games. The youngest is 16-year-old defenseman Lyndsay Wall, one of six players who weren’t on the 1998 Nagano squad. The other first-time Olympians are forwards Natalie Darwitz, 18; Julie Chu, 19; Andrea Kilbourne, 20, and Krissy Wendell, 20, and defenseman Courtney Kennedy, 22.

“It is a huge honor for all the returning Olympians to be named to the team for a second time,” Granato said. “Every member of this team has worked hard since August, and we are very proud to be able to represent our country, especially on home ice in Salt Lake City.”

Said Karyn Bye, a Nagano gold medalist, “This team has an amazing blend of skill from both newcomers and veterans. Every member of the team has proven she belongs here. I know we are all extremely excited to wear the USA jersey in February.”

The team’s domination during its tour makes for impressive statistics, but it doesn’t do much to challenge players or give them experience playing under pressure. Team USA last weekend applied the final flourish to its sweep of a four-game series against Sweden with a 12-1 rout, outshooting the Swedes, 80-3.

“From time to time we get a challenge,” Smith said. “That’s a real problem. So it becomes incumbent on us to do things in practice at a pace that will push everyone.”

Smith said the break is coming at a good time for players who have been training or on the road and away from their families since August.

“There was a great release of emotions at our meeting [Monday] morning,” he said. “There were tears of happiness for those selected to the team and tears of sadness for those who were not. The physical grind of four months has taken its toll, and the pressure of [roster-cutting] announcements has been great. The nine-or 10-day rest is welcome.”

But Smith won’t be idle. He plans to continue to plot strategy and begin putting together lines and defense tandems for the Olympics.

“It’s time to stop the constant shuffle of forwards and defense pairs,” he said. “People were playing different shifts and pairings, and now it’s time to settle on what we want.”

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Bobsled driver Bonny Warner chose Bethany Hart, a two-time All-American in the hammer throw at the University of Connecticut, to be her brakeman in the U.S. Olympic women’s bobsled trials Friday and Saturday at Utah Olympic Park.

Warner began the season with Vonetta Flowers, but dropped her in favor of Gea Johnson. Last week, Jean Racine, the top-ranked U.S. driver, lured Johnson away from Warner and dumped longtime friend and brakeman Jennifer Davidson.

The third U.S. pair will be Jill Bakken and Shauna Rohbock. Two teams will qualify for the Games.