The U.S. women's ice hockey team was not able to repeat the Olympic Gold medal success from 1998 and had to settle for Silver instead after being defeated by the reigning champions and three-time Olympic Gold medalists Canada with a score of 0-2 at the 2010 Winter Olympics on Thursday.

“I’m extremely proud of our team for winning a silver and being able to contribute to the medal count for the U.S., but obviously, our goal has always been the gold medal,” said U.S. defense player Angela Ruggiero in an interview with Tommy Hine after the game.

Canada established its lead with the first two goals at 13:55 and 16:50 in the first period and then rode the momentum all the way to the end of the game all the while giving the U.S. ladies no opportunity to catch up.

Although both teams had a close to equal amount of penalties in the first two periods neither one was able to benefit from the resulting power plays as no additional goals were scored.

Interestingly, both teams matched each other in activity levels as the Canadian goaltender, Shannon Szabados, defended and saved 28 shots taken at her goal while the U.S. goaltender, Jessie Vetter, saved 27, but missed two.

Shots On Goal
TEAM	1st	2nd	3rd	T
United States	7	14	7	28
Canada	8	10	11	29

Related articles:

• Team U.S.A. crushes Russia in women's ice hockey prelim round 13-0 at Winter Olympics 2010
• Team U.S.A. crushes China in women's ice hockey prelim round 12-1 (slideshow)
• Natalie Darwitz to lead U.S. women's Olympic hockey team as captain in Vancouver (video)