URL:http://www.globeandmail.com/docs/news/19970404/SportColumn/SBRUNN.html GLOBEnet Nurturing women's hockey Friday, April 4, 1997 By Stephen Brunt THE fourth-best women's international hockey team in the world played the best last night. Both China and Canada came into the game undefeated, both with a chance to finish first on one side of the world-championship draw. And the matchup of course produced a nail-biter--at least a nail-biter relative to Canada's first two games in the tournament. After a period, the home side led 5-0, and had outshot their opponents 19-3 despite killing a couple of penalties. Perhaps a minute went by when the play wasn't taking place inside China's blueline. China's first shot on goal came with 6:01 left in the frame--which was something since in its previous two games Team Canada hadn't given up a first-period shot. China wound up with three. But at least the visitors tried to check. At least they didn't seem entirely in awe. And a couple of times they rushed the puck rather than simply falling back into a defensive shell. All of which is a good thing, since come next February in Nagano, China might well win an Olympic bronze medal. Such are the challenges when a nascent sport--or at least a nascent branch of a sport--gets thrust into the big time before most of the world catches on. Looking around Kitchener Memorial Auditorium last night, at least half of the seats filled by young girls finding role models, dreaming dreams, it's a pretty safe bet that the explosion of women's hockey in this country will continue, the only barriers being rink space and ice time. The Canadian team is skilled and aggressive and fun to watch. Just as long as they don't get too bored or too complacent, they can only get better--even if the only standard against which to measure themselves is themselves. "We believe that we could shoot harder, get a quicker release, teach them how to shoot off the front foot," Team Canada assistant coach Daniele Sauvageau said before last night's game. "We can improve strength and technique. The game is going to improve so much." But where does that leave everyone else? The Americans are in the mix, of course, the only team ever to beat Canada in elite international play, winning a game at last year's Nation's Cup in Ottawa. They aren't at Canada's level, but they're just a step or two behind. With women's college hockey growing by leaps and bounds thanks to antidiscrimination rules, and with the Olympics coming to Salt Lake City in 2002, you know the United States Olympic Committee is going to do everything it can to challenge for the gold. After the U.S. come the Finns, who actually tied the Americans 3-3 in this tournament. There are 1,900 Finnish women involved in organized hockey. Then China, where they've made huge strides, understanding that this is a sport where you can win medals fast. All of the players on this edition of the national team come from one city--Harbin. Then comes the rest of the world: Sweden, which won the European championship but has been unimpressive here (in that hockey-crazy country, only 1,200 women play the sport). And Switzerland, where there are fewer than 1,000 players. And Norway, where there are only 400 women. And Russia, the former Big Red Machine, a men's hockey power for 40 years. There were 400 women playing in all of that vast land this year, up from 284 a year ago. In Canada in 1997, something in the neighbourhood of 30,000 women will play competitive hockey in a club system beside which the U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association pales by comparison. For a sport about to be showcased on the world stage for the first time, that talent disparity represents something of a bind. It's all well and good for Canada to go to an Olympic Games with a gold medal in the bag--there have been precious few sure things over the years, especially in the national game. No one here will enjoy it any less than the Americans enjoyed those Dream Team routs. But with the real possibility that the talent gap will widen before it closes, there are going to be more than a few people questioning whether women's hockey really belongs in the Olympics at this point in its history. Canadian hockey officials understand that. "You have to have equal competition," said Bob Nicholson, senior vice-president of hockey operations for Canadian Hockey. "If you're going to have scores of 25-1, people aren't going to stay interested in it." But the only way to improve the competition is to do it ourselves. The Soviets closed the gap in the men's game all on their own with a home-grown system, a process that took decades. Women's hockey is going to need a jump start, which means exporting Canadian coaches, exporting Canadian methods, sowing the seeds of our own defeat somewhere down the line. "Yes, we clearly want to say on top," Nicholson said. "But it's also in our interest to grow the game internationally." For a while but not forever, we'll be able to have it both ways. We welcome your [8]comments. Copyright (c) 1997, The Globe and Mail Company All rights reserved.