USA-Russia end medal game with line brawl

Interesting note in Greg Drinnan's blog today:

Russia beat the U.S. 2-1 in the under-17 Four Nations Cup that ended in Dmitrov, Russia, on Sunday. The big news is that the teams engaged in a post-game bench-clearing – yes, bench-clearing – brawl. There are some photos here . . . There is some grainy video here . . . Don’t bother looking for any mention of this on USA Hockey’s website because, well, there isn’t any . . .

Sure enough the USA Hockey game report conveniently omits the penalty recap. The video may be inconclusive as to who started the brouhaha, but the omission speaks volumes.

This doesn't equal the Canada-Russia line brawl at the 1987 World Juniors but it's still a black eye on international competition. Even less classy, USA wasn't on the ice when Russia received their gold medals. Russia had won the final game 2-1.

Canada blanks US to win women's Four Nations Cup

The four powerhouses in women's hockey faced off in the women's Four Nations Cup. (OK, the two powerhouses, Canada and USA, and their nearest contenders, Sweden and Finland.) Predictably, the Canucks and the Americans faced off in the final where Canada again won the spoils to take home their fifth gold medal in six years.

The final score was 2-0, with an empty netter. The medal game was much tighter than their round robin match up, which Canada took 6-3.

It'd be nice to see another team get a chance at gold but, like the Olympics in Turin, it would probably be at the expense of USA Hockey. Team Canada has no equal.