Canada’s women’s ice hockey team has won its fourth straight Olympic gold medal, beating the United States, 3-2, in an overtime thriller in Sochi.
Marie-Philip Poulin scored the winning goal eight minutes into overtime Thursday at the Bolshoi Ice Dome, forcing Canada’s fierce North American rival to settle for silver.
A furious Canadian comeback sent the game into overtime. Trailing 2-0 early in the third period, Canada tied the game on late goals by Brianne Jenner and Poulin. Poulin’s equalizer came after Canada pulled its goalie, giving it an extra shooter on the ice.
The U.S. won gold in women’s ice hockey when the sport debuted at the 1998 Nagano Games. Canada has since won each of the four finals, beating the United States for the gold in 2002, 2006 and now 2014. Canada also beat the U.S., 3-2, in a preliminary round game in Sochi.
Also Thursday, Adelina Sotnikova won Russia’s first-ever women’s Olympic figure skating gold medal in stunning fashion, upsetting defending champion Kim Yuna of South Korea.
The 17-year-old Sotnikova posted a score of 224.59, 5.48 points ahead of Kim, the silver medalist. Italy’s Carolina Kostner took bronze.
Kim was bidding to become just the third woman to win back-to-back Olympic titles after Norway’s Sonja Henie, a triple winner between 1928 and 1936, and Germany’s Katarina Witt in 1984 and 1988.
