Larocque wins Silver with Team Canada at Olympics

For 58 minutes, it looked like Canada’s golden generation of women’s hockey players had one more great performance in them.

Going into the Olympic Gold Medal game against the United States, the Canadians, featuring Ste Anne’s Jocelyne Larocque were heavy underdogs, but a Kristen O’Neill short-handed breakaway had the Canucks up 1-0.

Despite U.S.A. leaning on younger players for their advantage in recent years, it was their veteran captain who saved the day, tipping home a point shot with two minutes to go to tie the game before Megan Keller scored the golden goal in the three-on-three overtime.

“It’s going to take a little bit to decompress, there’s no doubt about it. That’s the exact game expected, a tight matchup,” an emotional Canadian defender Renata Fast told the Free Press following the game. Fast was paired with Larocque throughout most of the tournament.

“I think what I’m most proud of is this group and the heart and the pride and the passion that we played with after a lot of adversity throughout the year and a lot of noise in the background. I think this group showed up tonight and they made our country proud.”

The Americans had won all four games of a pre-Olympics series against Canada, defeated them in the medal round and had dominated the entire tournament with a plus-30 goal difference across six games heading into the final.

“Despite coming away with the (silver) medal, we can all step away and be really proud of the effort and the heart and the passion that we played with,” said Fast.

“We’ve dealt with a lot of adversity already through this entire year, the Rivalry Series and this tournament. For us to come out with a performance like that, I’m just really proud of the group. Just wish we could have got it done.”

Larocque will be in action in Manitoba for the first time in her professional career later this year, as the Professional Women’s Hockey League comes to the Canada Life Centre for a Takeover Tour regular season game.

Larocque’s Ottawa Charge will be playing Montreal March 22.