U.S. Women’s Team Is Skating on Thin Ice

Passes that once slid precisely from tape to tape go astray. Defensive zone coverage disintegrates into scrambles. The U.S. women’s hockey team, confident and poised last April in winning its first world championship, is still finding its scoring touch and direction with the Turin Olympics 10 weeks away.

Without the creativity of veterans Cammi Granato and Shelley Looney, who were cut during training camp in August, the U.S. women are struggling to score. They’re undeniably talented, a product of the sport’s growth at the youth and college levels, but they’re finding some unpleasant bumps along the road to Turin.

The U.S.-Canada rivalry, fierce since they met for the first women’s world championship in 1990, has tilted dramatically toward Canada, an imbalance that could mean the difference between gold and silver in February. Team USA’s 3-1 loss on Thursday before a sparse crowd of 3,577 at the United Center was its seventh in eight games against Canada since September and seventh in 13 pre-Olympic games overall.

“We’re force-feeding some people maybe into some situations that they haven’t seen before, moving some defensemen to forward, forwards to defense, that type of thing,” U.S. Coach Ben Smith said.

“We’re still trying to figure out how the final puzzle is going to come together.”

Although Team USA scored first, on a first-period breakaway by 18-year-old Sarah Parsons, Canada tied it when Katie Weatherston was left alone in the slot at 15:39 of the second period and went ahead when a bad line change allowed Gillian Apps to finish off a two-on-none with 3:40 to play. Kelly Bechard’s empty-net goal barely beat the buzzer for Canada’s final goal.

The U.S. played a similarly close game against Canada on Sunday, a 2-1 shootout victory. That erased some of the sting of having been routed by Canada twice by a combined 12-0 at a test tournament in Turin three weeks ago. Before facing Canada at Turin, Team USA had to battle for a 1-0 victory over Finland and scored only on the power play in a 3-0 victory over Sweden, which twice lost to the U.S. by double digits before the 2002 Games.

“We would like to score more. It’s definitely a problem,” said team captain Krissy Wendell, of Brooklyn Park, Minn. “But this is December and we’ve got to be ready to play in February. As long as we keep improving, that’s the important thing.”

The U.S. women’s national team has never lost to anyone but Canada; the Canadian women’s team has never lost an international game to anyone but Team USA. But nothing is sure for the U.S. at this stage. “We have to keep working and getting our assignments correct, for me and the players,” Smith said.

After cutting two skaters and a goalie to reach the limit of 18 and two, the U.S. will face Canada on Dec. 30 at St. Paul, Minn., and Jan. 1 at Winnipeg, Canada. The U.S. women have a lot of work to do before then.

“There’s a lot of confusion out there, especially with a lot of new kids on the team, and we’re running different systems,” said forward Jenny Potter, a two-time Olympian.

“We’re running lots of different looks on forechecks and d-zone coverage, so there’s a lot to learn. The team is learning a whole bunch of looks as far as everything goes and we’re getting better as a team. We can recognize things on the ice faster.”

They can also recognize that they’re not near their peak.

“Maybe before Salt Lake, we were ready to go now. We still have some things that we need to work on and get better at,” forward Katie King said. “Back then, we were ready for the last month and a half.”

At Nagano and Salt Lake City they had Granato, the top career scorer in the women’s game, and Looney, a versatile defenseman. Granato, sister of former NHL player Tony Granato and briefly a commentator on Kings’ radio broadcasts, was a pioneer and the face of the game. But as younger, swifter players like Parsons emerged, Smith said Granato couldn’t keep up.

“In her heyday she was a first-line player and that was her strength,” Smith said. “This is indicative of how far people have come.... The game is moving forward and it’s time for new faces.”

Defenseman Angela Ruggiero, who grew up in Simi Valley, said she missed Granato and Looney “tremendously,” especially in Granato’s hometown of Chicago on Thursday. “It’s sad that she’s not here but we’re just trying to collect ourselves and keep plugging away,” Ruggiero said.

Smith said he had no regret over the roster cuts but said he might have made a mistake in arranging a light pre-Olympic schedule.

The U.S. women are 6-7 with seven games to play before Turin; Canada is 23-9-1 with five international games left. Canada will also continue to play in a triple-A midget boys’ league in Calgary, which has helped the team become fit and game-sharp. Canada’s coach, Melody Davidson, said her team is a few games below .500 against the boys, who have the incentive of not wanting to lose to girls.

“We’re not just training for six or seven weeks and play the U.S., Sweden and Finland and train again,” Davidson said.

“They want to play games. That’s why they want to play the sport.”

Davidson added that the U.S. women have improved by becoming more aggressive on the forecheck.

“I feel like they’re getting into their groove,” she said.

They appear to be in a good goaltending groove after a 25-save performance by Pam Dreyer, which followed a 25-save effort by Chanda Gunn of Huntington Beach on Sunday. That, at least, shouldn’t be a concern.

“I think we’re making progress,” Smith said. “We’re starting to see some of the things that give us good feelings about where we think we can go with this group.... We’re still in the evolution stage. In the next three weeks we should be able to figure it out.”

Or they’ll have a long four years to do it.