URL:http://www.canoe.ca/TorontoSports/9703310168.html

April 1, 1997

NORWAY CHECKING DENIED

By STEVE BUFFERY 
Toronto Sun KITCHENER --  The Norwegian women's ice hockey team wants
the chance to be able to play like Vikings, not violets.
  Following their 7-0 loss to the highly-favored U.S. squad at the
Kitchener Memorial Auditorium yesterday, the Norwegian squad, and
specifically captain Inger Lise Fagernes, called for the inclusion of
body-checking to women's hockey. Unlike the men's game, body checking
is not allowed in women's play.
  Fagernes says that's wrong and will only hold the game back
internationally.
  "Why can't we?" the outspoken captain asked. "I don't see the
problem. We wear the same equipment as the boys. In Norway, because
there aren't many (female) players, we often have to play against the
boys. So body-checking is allowed.
  "It's the same game as the boys play, isn't it? "(And) it's much
more fun (with hitting)."
  Fagernes believes her shell-shocked team would have had a better
chance against the U.S. yesterday if they were allowed to slow the
Yanks down by taking the body along the boards.
  "I could see the girls were getting frustrated," Fagernes said. "The
U.S. is so fast, we have to do it just to keep up with them. If we
were allowed to hit, I think we could have done a lot better. At the
European championships, they had a meeting with all the team captains
and everybody agreed, except for Finland, that we should play with
body-checking."
  Fagernes said as the European championships progressed, the referees
took a more lenient attitude towards physical play, to the point where
there was plenty of the hitting by the end of the competition.
  Body-checking or not, yesterday's U.S.-Norway game clearly
demonstrated the imbalance of play in international women's hockey.
Norway finished fourth at the Europeans this year but were completely
dominated yesterday by the Americans, who outshot their nordic foes
52-10, 23-3 in the final period.
  The U.S. is the only team ever to beat the favored Canadians in
international play, during a round-robin game at last year's Three
Nations Cup. The top five teams from this eight-team world
championships qualify for next winter's Nagano Olympics.

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TORONTO SUN

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