URL:http://www.thestar.com/thestar/editorial/sports/970406SPC1b_SP-WOMEN6.html Toronto Star Home Page April 6, 1997 [photo] FRANK GUNN / CP PICTURE OF DEJECTION: Finland's Karolina Rantamaecki, foreground, heads for dressing room as Team Canada celebrates its thrilling victory yesterday. Canada-U.S. final rekindles rivalry By Alan Adams - Toronto Star Sports Reporter KITCHENER - It's us versus them, again. Canada plays the United States for the gold medal at the women's world hockey championship today in what promises to be much more than your average title game. ``There is all this talk about them having all this money and training all the time,'' said Cassie Campbell. ``I want to show them that Canadian pride can beat that.'' The game is not only a clash of rivals, but also a clash of philosophies about how to prepare for the world championships and the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, where the Canadian and American women will be seeded first and second, respectively. The U.S. has put much more money and effort into their national team program than Canada has. The Americans hired a full-time coach in 1996 and the players have been together, for the most part, since they travelled to China in December. The Canadians, the three-time defending world champions, will hire a full-time coach in May. They held a 10-day training camp prior to the worlds but not until September will they assemble as a team to begin their Olympic preparations. The rivalry is a strong one. In their previous two encounters, at the Three Nations Cup, Canada defeated the Americans 1-0 in the final after dropping a 2-1 decision to them in round-robin play. The Americans have replaced the Russians as Canada's main adversary on the world stage and a fourth world title by the Canadian women would take some of the sting out of losing the World Cup to the U.S. last September. The Canadians took a nail-biting route to the final, beating Finland 2-1 on Vicky Sunohara's fourth goal of the tournament with 24 seconds left in the third period. Her third winning goal in four games came a short time after Campbell got trapped in the Finnish end, allowing the Finns to break out on a 2-on-1. Goalie Lesley Reddon made a pad save and on the ensuing faceoff, the Canadians rushed the puck up ice and their efforts paid off when Sunohara took Geraldine Heaney's feed and put it past the Finnish goalie to send the crowd of 4,963 into a frenzy. ``I knew I was wide open and I do not know if Geraldine has eyes in the back of her head but she saw me,'' said Sunohara. ``I can't tell how happy I am right now.'' The Americans easily handled China yesterday, winning 6-0. Listening to the Americans, you'd think the outcome of today's final is a foregone conclusion. Goalie Erin Whitten said the Americans are incapable of breakdowns while forward Shelley Looney went one step further. ``There is nothing that can stop us,'' she said. The Finns, meanwhile, complained after the game that the Canadians had deliberately interrupted a breakfast meeting at the teams' hotel yesterday morning in a bid to throw their opponents off their game. ``I'll tell you one thing - that's not true,'' said Canada's Jayna Hefford. ``We had a big breakfast with some Team Canada alumni, we went back to our rooms, got some treatment and then hopped on the bus. I don't know when that could have happened.'' ``I don't know what they're talking about,'' Canadian captain Stacy Wilson said. ``This is the first I've heard of it.'' If the alleged disturbance threw the Finns off their game, it was hard to tell. The Finns were tenacious in their forechecking in the first period and as a result, Canada struggled to get the puck out of its end. The Canucks, in fact, were lucky to be behind only 1-0 after the opening period. The Canadian coaching staff, realizing their team was a little flat, showed the players a motivational video during the first intermission. Contents copyright © 1996, 1997, The Toronto Star. User interface, selection and arrangement copyright © 1996, 1997 Torstar Electronic Publishing Ltd.