This was no Miracle on Ice, no bunch of kids and minor-leaguers taking down the mightiest hockey dreadnought on the planet. But at least now we know who Maddie Rooney is.
She is Jim Craig squared, is who she is.
She's the young goalie from U.S. hockey heaven, Minnesota, who not only rose to the occasion but hurdled it last night, as the U.S. women got the best of Canada in the latest Olympic gold-medal clash between the two best women's hockey teams in the world. The final was 3-2 in a shootout, and its signature moment was Rooney disdainfully sweeping the puck out of the crease after stoning one last Canadian shooter.
Four times she did that in the shootout, 29 times all told in the preceding overtime and shootout. I don't know if that was the defining moment of these Winter Games, but it will be for the Americans, who have been something of a mixed bag in PyeongChang. The women's hockey team, lugers and snowboarders have excelled; the men's hockey team, figure skaters and Alpine skiers, not so much.
But at least we had last night. At least we had Maddie, who beat the Canadians after the U.S. failed to do so in the previous five Olympics. It's been the greatest sustained rivalry in the Winter Games for two decades, and it looks as if it's not going anywhere.
And Maddie Rooney?
Because this is America, and because this is how things work in America, she and gold-medal snowboarders Chloe Kim and Red Gerard are going to be on your TV screens rooms before long, selling you stuff. You win gold in this country, you exchange it for more gold.
Welcome to the party, Maddie.
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