3 things Team USA has to fix before the women’s hockey Olympic semifinals

Despite looking dominant throughout much of the game, the United States women’s hockey team took a hard 2-1 loss to Canada in their final preliminary match. The game didn’t impact the team’s standing, as the United States will play in the semifinals on Feb. 19, but pride was certainly on the minds of the two rivals.

Even with the dominant performance, there are certainly things the United States can — and should — tweak before entering the semifinals next week. Team USA certainly could have won if it not for the hot hands of goaltender Genevieve Lacasse or a few better bounces, but there are definitely things in their control that they can fine tune before the semifinals take place.

There’s no guarantee that the United States will face Canada in the gold medal match in a week, even though the two teams are favored to compete for the top prize once more. Should the United States want to have the best chance at facing — and beating — Canada, though, here’s three things they can fix before the upcoming semifinals.

The United States got overall fine goaltending from 20-year-old Maddie Rooney, who stopped 21 shots in the loss on Wednesday. However, Team Canada’s second goal scored by Sarah Nurse was one that very well could have been stopped. The puck was placed perfectly by the Canadian, but Rooney was slow to react on the play that went up and over her shoulder.

Rooney was certainly outplayed by Lacasse in net — Team USA put an overwhelming amount of shots put in front of the Canadian goaltender — but this goal is likely one they’ll think on when reviewing the tape. Given the starts in the preliminaries, Rooney is likely going to get the nod in the semifinal match, and Team USA will no doubt need her to be sharp in the elimination rounds.

While there’s no body checking allowed in women’s hockey, United States vs. Canada games are often on the rough side. That much was certain on Wednesday, when the United States took a total of 12 penalty minutes to Canada’s eight.

Given that the Canadians scored on one of four power plays they received, the United States will have to do a better job of keeping out of the penalty box and working on their penalty kill. Canada’s first goal of the night came on the power play and was a direct result of a bit of chaos in the defensive zone, and a bit of good Canadian passing.

It’s no secret that Canada has an elite forward core that is deadly on the ice when given space. Should the United States want to face them in the final, and win, the United States may have to dial back some of the aggression we’ve come to see from these games to stay clear of the penalty box.

Was Nurse’s game-winning goal offside or within the realm of legality? The United States allowed the call on the ice to stand without challenging the call — yes, they can do that this year! — for offside, but a closer look at a screenshot casts a bit of doubt on the goal.

It’s hard to say if the United States and head coach Robb Stauber were fine with letting the play slide due to the game being essentially meaningless in the standings, however a replay could have swung the goal — and potentially the game — in Team USA’s favor. In an elimination game, Stauber will hopefully be more willing to throw the challenge out there given the opportunity in a crucial moment.