Goalie Says Eight Is Enough

Watching Canada celebrate its eighth consecutive victory over the U.S. in the title game of the women’s world hockey championship inspired goaltender Chanda Gunn of Huntington Beach to vow the outcome would be different the next time they meet.

“You stand on that blue line and you say, ‘This is not going to happen again,’ ” Gunn said of Team USA’s 2-0 loss at Halifax, Canada, on Tuesday. “I learned a lot, and I have a lot of things to grow on. It was incredibly disappointing, and it was my first time playing and contributing.”

Gunn, a senior at Northeastern and 2006 Olympic hopeful, played two full games and half of another, including a 13-save performance against Sweden on Monday that advanced the U.S. to the gold-medal game.

Team USA had defeated Canada in a preliminary-round game, 3-1, raising the U.S. players’ hopes of winning the one title that has eluded them. But an injury-depleted U.S. team couldn’t muster enough offensive pressure in the finale.

“We know we shouldn’t be intimidated by them,” Gunn said. “I think we have two clubs that are very, very even. We’re going to work over the summer and the next year to separate ourselves from them and win.”

*

A premier sprinting rivalry, 100-meter world record holder Tim Montgomery versus Olympic champion and former record holder Maurice Greene, might be renewed next weekend at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut.

Meet director Scott Davis said he was told both will run the 100. Montgomery hasn’t competed since he finished fifth at last summer’s world championships in Paris. Davis also said Marion Jones, penciled in for the 400, intended to enter the long jump as well. He said the 400-meter relay would feature three U.S. national teams competing against a team of athletes from the Irvine-based HSI club.

*

Organizers of the Home Depot Invitational, to be held May 22 in Carson, reached agreements with six pole vaulters who have cleared 19 feet, which meet director Rich Perelman said might be a first at a U.S. meet.

Dmitri Markov of Australia, who won the 2001 world championship with a vault of 19 feet 10 1/4 inches, agreed to compete, as have U.S. record holder Jeff Hartwig (19-9 1/2), defending Olympic champion Nick Hysong, Derek Miles, Russ Buller and Tim Mack. The women’s pole vault will feature Chelsea Johnson of UCLA, who set the women’s collegiate mark of 15 feet this season.

Perelman said fields for the men’s and women’s 800 and men’s and women’s 400-meter hurdles were full even though those races offer no prize money, and that he turned down a 10.05 sprinter because he didn’t have enough lanes for everyone who wanted to run the 100. “They know this track is fast and they want a fast mark before the Olympic trials to help their seedings and their confidence,” he said.