LINKOPING, Sweden (CP) - Canada didn't give up a goal in regulation time or overtime during the world women's hockey championship, yet saw its dynasty come to an end.
The gold medal came down to a shootout Saturday and the U.S. ended its long run as runner-up in the tournament when American goaltender Chanda Gunn stopped Caroline Ouellette on Canada's fourth scoring pass of the shootout.
Krissy Wendell scored the golden goal for the Americans on Canadian goaltender Kim St. Pierre, who played brilliantly during regulation.
The scoreline of the 2005 world championship final will read U.S. 1, Canada 0. Canada went into the final having outscored the opposition 38-0.
"You don't give up a goal for five games or in overtime and you still don't win," Canadian head coach Melody Davidson said. "I don't know when that happens very often.
"It hurts. It hurts a lot and that's going to be there until we get the chance to win again."
Canada's run of consecutive world women's titles ended at eight and one short of the record held by the former Soviet Union men's team from 1963 to 1972.
The Canadian players made a bee-line for their locker room following the award ceremonies at the Cloetta Center. The veterans were grim faced and some of the young players were tearful.
The shootout has always been a questionable way to win a title game and teams tend to feel particularly sour about it when they lose.
"It's a tough way to lose and a tough way to win I think," Canadian captain Cassie Campbell said.
The U.S. and Canada have met in 21 gold-medal finals in world championships, Olympic Games and Four Nations Cups. While the Americans were Olympic champs in 1998, the world championship gold had eluded them until Saturday.
U.S. captain Cammi Granato is the only player to have participated in all nine world championships and was able to end her run of silver.
"It's been a long time coming and it's a historic moment for USA Hockey," Granato said.
Saturday's final was a classic tug-of-war between the world's powers in women's hockey. Both sides had their chances to end it in regulation and overtime. Each team had a power play opportunity in extra time and failed to score.
As overtime wound down, legs on both sides began to tire. The play began to deteriorate and it was apparent this game was headed into extra shots.
Sarah Vaillancourt scored on Canada's first shot of the shootout before Hayley Wickenheiser, Jayna Hefford and Ouellet were stopped by Gunn, who was unflappable despite playing in her first world championship final.
Natalie Darwitz and Angela Ruggiero scored, Helen Resor was stopped by St. Pierre and then Wendell, the tournament MVP, scored what stood up as the winner for the U.S.
The Americans outskated the Canadians for much of regulation time and outshot them 49-26 overall. The U.S. pressure game took away time and space from the Canadians in their own zone, as the Americans sent two players in to harass the puck carriers and passers.
Canada's defence was often slow to clear the puck from in front of St. Pierre, who was the reason Canada came out of the first period tied 0-0 with the U.S.
If anything, St. Pierre's experience in big games and Gunn's lack of it would have made Canada the favourite in the shootout.
"I went in between the posts very confident," St. Pierre said. "I knew we had good players and we would score goals. It's just to bad I wasn't lucky enough or good enough to stop some of the shootouts. I really thought we could win when we were down to the shootout."
With the 2006 Olympic Games less than a year away, the two teams will use Saturday's result in different ways as they prepare for another likely meeting in the championship game in Turin, Italy.
The U.S. will be able to draw confidence from beating Canada in the most recent game to determine which country is No. 1.
"It helps our team know we can do it and that's a good thing," said Granato.
The Canadian players will congregate in Calgary on Aug. 1 to begin training for Turin and Saturday's result will motivate them through months of tough training.
"It'll fuel the fire, to look across and see their flag being raised and not yours, that's something that's always tough to swallow," said Wickenheiser. "I remember that feeling from 1998 and that's something we will take and we will use to help motivate our team."
The world order of women's hockey changed slightly at this world championship in the top three were not Canada, the U.S. and Finland. The host Swedes defeated Finland 5-2 for the bronze medal.
Kazakhstan upset Russia 2-1 in the relegation game, sending the Russians to the second-tier or world women's B championship in 2007. The world women's championship skips years in which there is an Olympic Games, so there will not be a world championship in 2006.