IT all got a bit frosty at the Winter Olympics as the USA and Finland women’s ice hockey teams battled it out — literally.
Rosa Lindstedt and Monique Lamoureux-Morando came to blows, but the Americans had the last laugh, winning 3-1.
American goalkeeper Maddie Rooney made an incredible 23 saves against the Scandinavian country, while her counterpart Noora Raty denied the USA on a whopping 39 occasions.
Petra Nieminen found Vinla Hovi to put the European nation 1-0 up at the Kwandong Hockey Centre, but they couldn’t hold on for the win.
Lamoureux-Morando equalised 8:56 seconds into the second period, before Kendall Coyne netted minutes after after great work from Hilary Knight.
And with Finland chasing a late goal, Dani Cameranesi swept the puck home into an empty net in the final minute of the third period.
Coyne, 25, was delighted by her side’s performance, and said after the match: “It was tremendously important. We want to win the game, and I don’t think we got down when we went down one-nothing. We stuck to our game plan.
“In order to be the best, you need to beat the best.
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“It was a great first start, and our focus now turns to the Olympics Athletes from Russia.”
USA head coach Robb Stauber said of the win: “You would like to come out and score a whole bunch more, but as Finland does they play very tough.
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“We expected it and weren’t surprised by it at all.
“We had a pretty good first period we just had a mental lapse on the play, we were in real good position, we just didn’t pick up the most dangerous player.”
Russia are next up for America, followed by a huge clash against rivals Canada.
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