Granato Leads US Women's Hockey

	Tony Granato of the San Jose Sharks congratulates sister Cammi after the U.S. women's team defeated Canada on Jan. 20 in San Jose. (Steve Castillo/AP)

The last obstacle between her and the Olympic record books — Chinese goalie Guo Hong — had fallen and the goal mouth yawned wide.

Less than eight minutes into Sunday's game, Granato became the first member of the U.S. women's ice hockey team to score a goal in the Olympics. She added the game's final goal, too, as the United States defeated China 5-0.

Both scores — the first on a power play — came as Granato pounced on rebounds fluttering just outside Guo's reach.

"I just saw a loose puck,'' she said. "I had room to jump on it and I banged it home. It was a really nice feeling.''

Top-ranked Canada defeated Japan 13-0 and Finland beat Sweden 6-0 in the other games Sunday.

In just one game, Granato has already scored more Olympic goals than her brother, the San Jose Sharks' Tony Granato. He had one goal and seven assists in six games at the 1988 Olympics.

"That's a good thing to remember,'' she said with a laugh. "Maybe we'll get a little competition going.''

Granato is captain of the U.S. team and is one of only three members who have been with the squad since it was formed for the 1990 Women's World Championship.

She grew up in Downers Grove, Ill., playing basement shinny with four brothers and her sister and rebuffing her mother's attempts to guide her toward figure skating.

She replayed the memories on Sunday, reading a poem her brother Robby had written to remind her of the trip from those childhood games to these Winter Games.

It "sort of sums up everything I've gone through early on and where I'm at right now,'' she said. "I kept reading that over and over while I listened to my music and visualized positive things.

"That's really when you feel it. This was something we've worked for so long, it's not the time to mess up. It's time to go all the way.''

Two of the team's other goals were scored by a pair of its rising stars, defenseman Tara Mounsey and forward Jennifer Schmidgall, both 19 years old.

Mounsey set up Karyn Bye's power play goal near the end of the first and fired home a slap shot in the second period. Schmidgall grabbed another rebound to put the United States ahead 4-0 in the middle of the third.

The powerful Mounsey, captain of the boys' team at her high school in Concord, N.H., forced the puck deep into the Chinese zone twice before finally scoring from near the blue line.

"I just one timed it hoping to get it on net or keep it in the zone. I didn't care if it went in,'' she said.

The ebullient Schmidgall, in her first year with the team, waved to her parents in the stands after scoring.

"I was so excited,'' she said. "I just came around the net and all of a sudden the rebound came out and I was in the right spot. I took it and waited for the goalie to fall down and I just put it in.''

Guo stopped 26 of the 31 shots she faced. China managed only 10 shots on U.S. goalie Sarah Tueting.

© Copyright 1998 The Associated Press

Back to the top | Ice Hockey Section

Olympics Front | Sport by Sport | Gallery | History | Nagano | Countries

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZMSxedKrrWiroKS%2Ftb%2BOpaann6Sav657zqWwpqiZmMByhZhxZqyon6fBcLTOnKKesV%2BWv7W1wqWcrGeXp66vrdOob2egpKI%3D