A.J. Mleczko was halfway down the E Center hallway as the United States women headed out to the ice Tuesday before their first game of the 2002 Winter Olympics–on American ice.
“I got chills just thinking about it,” Mleczko said. “I could hear when [starting goaltender] Sara DeCosta stepped onto the ice. There was such an eruption.”
And that was just for warmups.
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“I didn’t know they were going to be so electric,” U.S. captain and Downers Grove native Cammi Granato said of the juiced crowd.
“It was unbelievable,” U.S. alternate captain Karyn Bye said. “I think I saw more American flags then I’ve ever seen in an ice rink. Multiply that by 10 when we came out for the start of the first period.”
The defending gold medalists were so stunned by the thundering reaction that they talked about it on the bench. They weren’t in Nagano anymore, Toto.
“We were tapping each other on the shin pads,” Bye said. “We were saying, `Come on, let’s show this crowd how we can play.”‘
Did they ever. Starting with Bye’s two goals and two assists, the Americans slapped a 10-0 number on Germany, which was overwhelmed in making its Olympic debut in women’s hockey and then devoured by the overflow crowd of 8,504 raucous U.S. fans. Natalie Darwitz had two goals and Granato a goal and an assist.
“It was awesome,” winger Katie King said. “We knew we were in the Olympics and we knew we were in our own country. It definitely gave me goose bumps.”
The Americans dominated play from the start, and it only became more asphyxiating for the Germans. The faster, quicker and stronger U.S. players grabbed every loose puck, even if it meant jumping over the boards and skating completely across the ice, which happened and led to a U.S. scoring chance.
Here’s how bad it was: The first time Germany so much as had the chance to get the puck below the rings in the U.S. zone was because of an icing.
The Americans scored two goals in the first period, four in the second and four in the third. German starting goalie Stephanie Wartosch-Kurten was yanked before the midpoint of the second period after allowing six goals, and replacement Esther Thyssen was swamped for four. The 10 U.S. goals were two more than the Germans had shots.
“We win just by playing against them,” German forward Sabine Ruckauer reasoned.