With the fastest three goals in Olympics history, the United States women’s ice hockey team took a commanding 3-0 lead en route to a 9-0 rout of Team Switzerland 9-0 in their second game of the tournament. Swiss goaltender Florence Shelling of Northeastern University held the Americans at bay until Monique Lamoureux scored. From then on it was all Team USA.
Lamoureux, Brianna Decker, and Amanda Kessel all scored in under 55 seconds to set a Winter Olympics record midway through the first period. Kessel scored her first goal and the USA’s third of the game just eight seconds after Decker scored. She picked up the puck off the ensuing faceoff, chipped the puck to herself past a Swiss defender, raced to the met and then made a great head fake and slid the puck past Shelling.
The American outshot the Swiss 53-10, with Team USA goalie Molly Schaus enjoying a relatively easy day to earn a shutout in her first start at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Kessel is the younger sister of fellow U.S.A. Olympian Phil Kessel, who plays for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League. The older brother said in an interview with CBCsports.ca that he’s always known she’s a really good player.
“I’ve skated with her, she’s special. She has a special gift,” said Kessel in the interview posted o nthe CBCsports.ca website.
The 22-year old Kessel has been nothing but special for the University of Minnesota, leading the team in scoring during her three years with the Gophers. She led Minnesota to the NCAA national championship in 2013 with 46 goals and 55 assists in only 36 games. That is a ridiculous 2.8 points per game. Even though she was a late cut off the 2010 Vancouver Olympics team, there has been talk that she will be the next ‘Hayley Wickenheiser’ of women’s ice hockey. Wickenheiser is a veteran member of Team Canada and served as the country’s flag-bearer during Opening Ceremonies.
The Kessel line, which includes Northeastern University’s Kendall Coyne and Wisconsin’s Decker, combined for eleven points in the game as the Americans cruised past team Switzerland, building their confidence even higher for their enormous game coming up against their biggest rival and also undefeated Team Canada on Wednesday in Sochi.
Sochi 2014 Ice Hockey 