URL:http://www.globeandmail.com/docs/news/19970407/SportColumn/SGARE2.html GLOBEnet COMPLAINTS ABOUT HOCKEY SHOULD PRECLUDE WOMEN'S GAME Monday, April 7, 1997 By Gare Joyce ONCE regarded as heretical, complaints about the game of hockey have been taken up by an ever-expanding chorus. Different verses for the game's perceived curses. The players are too big. The rink has become too small. The game is less skilled than it used to be. Money means more than winning. You have likely made the assumption, a big one, that the game in question is the National Hockey League circa 1997. You might have already concluded that some of these criticisms might also be lodged against the pro minors, the major-junior leagues, the collegiate game and so on right down to the atom ranks. Mention of hockey conjures up enduring images, games played by men and mostly boys. That's too bad, for as the women's world hockey championship proved this past week in Kitchener there's much to recommend about the game that's played on the other side from gender assumptions. In the best of Saturday's semi-finals, Canada defeated Finland 2-1 in a game that was as fine as any you'll see this season and most other seasons. Canada came out flat in the first period and Finland took a well-deserved 1-0 lead seven minutes in on a slapshot by blueliner Kirsten Haenninen. Hayley Wickenheiser, the 18-year-old phenom from Calgary, knotted the game in the second. Thereafter the tense game seemed to be destined for an even more tense overtime period. Then, with a half minute left in regulation time Vicky Sunohara sneaked behind the Finnish defence, took a pass from defender Geraldine Heaney and deked goaltender Tuula Puputti. Canada 2-1 with 24 seconds left. Storybook stuff, but just a preliminary for the classic final against the Americans, who overpowered China in the other semi. Last night's overtime showdown had both tension and heightened nationalistic fervour. Three times the Canadians took a one-goal lead in each of the three regulation periods. Three times the United States rallied to tie. In the third period the hosts looked like they were fading, feeling the effects of the pace of the game and the pressure of the United States's hard-hitting forecheck. So close were these two teams that overtime as a plot device seemed appropriate. The bonus frame was eventful. A couple of minutes into the 20-minute overtime Sunohara had a glorious chance to again play heroine but the puck rolled off her stick at the side of an open U.S. net. The Canadians felt hard done by when Wickenheiser was whistled for a slash in OT, but a few minutes later the Canadians enjoyed a sustained two-skater advantage. Though the players were to a one running on nervous energy, never did it seem that a full 20 minutes would pass without a goal and that the fourth women's world championship would be decided by way of the dreaded shootout. At 12:59 Nancy Drolet rapped home puck that got through U.S. netminder Erin Whitten and the cheers went up. That was the game last night but what of the state of the game? For an expert opinion we asked Heaney, a 29-year-old veteran of Canada's world championship teams in 1990, '92, '94 and now '97. "The level of skill [here] is so much higher now than at the first world tournament," Heaney said. "Back then there was probably two lines that we wanted on the ice at important times during the game. Now this team and teams like the Finns and the Americans are a lot deeper. There are just a lot more skilled players out there." Because players at this level can skate and handle the puck and because they are not Kjell Samuelsson-sized, you can usually count the dump-and-chases on the fingers of one hand. When the women in this tournament gained the blueline, they looked to keep possession and make plays. The championship-winning goal for Canada was representative. Thirteen minutes into overtime Wickenheiser carried the puck over the blueline and fought through a bit of U.S. stickwork and a couple of shoves. In a men's game the play might have been cross-corner or hard-around. This time it was like pond hockey and it produced a goalmouth scramble and the third goal of the night for Drolet. That said, the United States depended on the dump-and-chase increasingly as last night's game wore on. And Canada's first goal last night, a power-play marker by Drolet, was the payoff on a dump-in. In the dying seconds of a two-skater advantage in the last minute of the first period, Stacy Wilson chased down the rubber behind Whitten and hit Drolet with a perfect feed. The tournament in Kitchener was a great showcase for the women's game but Heaney expressed reservations about the small size of the rink. "I know we'd like to play our games on the [Olympic-sized] ice surface because we're a skating team," she said. "We can play in the North American rink but it's to our advantage to play with more ice to go wide." International women's hockey isn't above reproach. Though only three teams--Canada, the U.S. and Finland--have a realistic shot at the podium, the women's section has been fast-tracked to medal status for next year's Winter Olympics. A few corporate heavyweights in the game accorded that gold- silver- and bronze-plated legitimacy so that hockey hardware can be more vigorously marketed to coming generations of women players. Still, anyone at these championships couldn't claim that the players are too big, the rink too small, the play too ham-handed or bucks too prominent. It's not a game in need of reform. It just needs an audience that can let go of those old gender assumptions. Gare Joyce can be reached via E-mail: gjoyce@GlobeAndMail.ca Copyright © 1997, The Globe and Mail Company ® All rights reserved.