On Wednesday night, the United States women’s hockey team up-ended Canada – the four-time reigning gold medalist – for their first gold medal in 20 years.
After winning silver medals in three of the four Olympic Tournaments that have followed the 1998 gold in Nagano, the United States had one stated goal in the Pyeongchang games: win gold.
The hard work put in by the United States to finally achieve that goal of gold on Wednesday night was not lost on the players participating in this weekend’s state high school hockey tournament.
“They worked really hard to get where they were at. Taking that from them, seeing how hard they worked from it, you take a perspective from their shoes and it makes you want to work that hard,” said Emily Zumwinkle of Breck.
Centennial’s Anneke Linser echoed similar thoughts. “They didn’t win against Canada much and they showed it can be done with a lot of hard work,” she said. “They said they can’t accept silver, they’re going to get gold. They worked hard over those four years. That was a really cool thing to see.”
For the Warroad team that will be playing in Saturday’s Class A championship game, the United States’ victory was especially sweet with the connection to Gigi Marvin, a noted Warriors alum on the USA roster.
“Yeah it’s pretty cool,” said Kaitlyn Kotlowski. “We have Gigi Marvin from Warroad and it’s a good player to look up to. She is a role model to all of us. It kind of got our spirits and hopes up that ‘yeah, we could do it too.'”
“We all look up to [Marvin] and want to play where she is someday,” added Genevieve Hendrickson.
For some players, they wanted to replicate the work Team USA put in into Saturday’s championship games – Breck vs. Warroad, Centennial vs. Edina – in St. Paul.
“Seeing [USA] win in a shootout and how much it took for them, it’s a reminder that it’s not going to come easy,” said Edina’s Aliyah Lance. “If we don’t play (hard) to the last buzzer then it is not going to come at all.”
“They haven’t done this in so long, getting the gold medal,” said Centennial’s Gabbie Hughes. “Same with Centennial, we haven’t made it to the tournament in 10 years and now we have an opportunity [on Saturday night] to do something huge.”
As all the players were saying, hard work was the key to the United States’ success in Pyeongchang. There was one, though, that stayed a bit fixated on Jocelyne Lamoureux’s gold-winning shootout goal.
It was Shea Messner, an eighth-grader on Breck’s roster.
“I really liked the game-winning shootout goal. I was inspired to replicate that goal.”
But for all the players remaining in Saturday’s title games, a similar goal to the United States is there – win a gold medal.
“Relishing the opportunity to do so, Hughes said, “I don’t think we have been more ready for it.”
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