Hefford picked up a loose puck at the American blueline and raced in alone on U.S. goaltender Sara DeCosta. A few dekes later, the puck was in the net with one second to play in the period and Canada had an insurmountable 3-1 lead.
The result was a complete reversal of fortunes for both clubs. The United States went 8-0 against Canada in the Skate to Salt Lake Tour. It also won both games in the TSN Challenge. But the U.S. lost twice when it counted -- the 2001 Women's World Championship and now, the 2002 Winter Olympics.
"It was a process," Canadian coach Daniele Sauvegeau said. "It was just a matter of playing 60 minutes and that's something we never did against the U.S. before."
In 1996-97, the U.S. was 6-7-0 in pre-season tours against the Canadians, but beat them in both meetings at the 1998 Nagano Games, including the gold-medal clincher.
The partisan American crowd -- there was a sprinkling of Canadians -- had an opportunity to dream in the final minutes of the match.
An American power-play goal by Karyn Bye with 3:34 to play in the game narrowed the gap and made for a hair-raising finish, but it ultimately proved too little, too late for the American women.
"There were a couple of moments early on where we pressed and had empty nets and didn't convert," U.S. coach Ben Smith said.
The Americans dominated the game in terms of power-play time and geographical position. But, at the end of the game, it was the Canadians who had more shots and, ultimately, more goals.
"The key in these games is always special teams and we certainly had our chances," American captain Cammi Granato said.
The American women were hard-pressed to put together any sustainable threats, particularly on the power play where they worked the puck around the zone with little effect.
"It was team defense, working hard," Canadian forward Cherie Piper said. "We didn't give them time to set up and were right in their faces."
Referee Stacey Livingston was particularly generous to the U.S. side, supplying it with 15:52 of power-play time to Canada's 6:00. It would be hard to say the Americans didn't have an opportunity to win the match.
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Jayna Hefford scored the back-breaking goal with one second left in the second period as the Canadians avenged a 3-1 loss to the United States in the gold medal game four years ago at Nagano.
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"It just gave us incentive to give it all that we had," Piper said of all the penalties.
After the game, the International Ice Hockey Federation said that it has only three countries from which it can pull high-ranking women's referees -- the U.S., Canada and Finland. The Finnish refs are considered to be several notches below their North American counterparts, so Livingston was chosen because she was ranked highest.
Despite the power-play opportunities afforded the Americans, the Canadians helped themselves by taking an early lead. Caroline Ouellette scored just 1:45 into the match.
The Americans equalized at 1:59 of the second period on the power-play when Katie King redirected a point shot behind Canadian keeper Kim St-Pierre.
The Canadians responded a few minutes later when Haley Wickenheiser picked up a loose puck and drilled it into a yawning net.
DeCosta stopped the original shot as Sue Merz was sliding across the ice to block the shot. It look for a second as though the puck was safe, but it careened out into the slot and Merz, still sliding, prevented DeCosta from getting back into position. Wickenheiser swooped in and had a wide variety of places to shoot.
Both the American and Canadian men's teams were in attendance. Based on what happens in their semifinal matches Friday at the E Center, there could be a meeting of the men's teams for gold as well.
Wayne Gretzky, the Executive Director of the Canadians men's team, was seen gazing down on the medal presentation ceremony.
"They [the men] need to have that kind of game under pressure," Sauvageau said.
The Canadian men's team has their next big-pressure match coming up Friday against Belarus.
Was Canada getting a glimpse of its team's future? Gretzky and the Canadian Hockey Association sure hope so.
