US-Canada women’s Olympic hockey rivalry set to resume

By JOHN WAWROW
AP Hockey Writer

BEIJING (AP) — Hate is not too strong of a word for former United States Olympian Cammi Granato to describe the tensions which have developed between the American and Canadian women’s hockey teams. One of the world’s fiercest rivalries are set to resume with the defending Olympic champion U.S. to play Canada in a Group A preliminary round game at the Beijing Games on Tuesday. The bad blood between the two border nations has been apparent since before the Americans defeated Canada to claim women’s hockey’s first gold medal at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. The two nations are expected to meet again in the gold-medal game next week.