In case you missed it, Team USA lost a hard-fought battle to Team Canada for the gold medal in Women’s Ice Hockey today and while the St. Louis Blues have obvious connections to Canada on the men’s side in Alex Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester, there’s a name familiar to Blues fans on the women’s side as well.
Hayley Wickenheiser, an Assistant Captain this year for Team Canada, is a cousin of the late, great Doug Wickenheiser who passed away from cancer in 1999. Haley has now won 4 gold medals and a silver competing all five times since Women’s Hockey’s inception as an Olympic sport and is the most decorated Canadian women’s hockey player in their history. She has another 7 gold medals in World Cup competition with Team Canada.
Doug was the First Round draft pick of the Montreal Canadiens in 1980, the same year as Team USA’s “Miracle on Ice” victory over the Soviet Union at Lake Placid. Wick spent four seasons with the St. Louis Blues including the 1985-86 campaign which produced his most memorable Blues moment, scoring the overtime winner in the “Monday Night Miracle,” to force a Game 7 in the Campbell Conference Finals against the Calgary Flames.
Hayley nearly scored the overtime winner in today’s gold medal match-up with Team USA on a breakaway but was taken down from behind and failed to get a shot off. She finished the game with 3-shots on goal and a +1 rating in a workhorse-like 25+ minutes of ice-time. Whether she’ll be involved in the next Winter Games remains to be seen, but her legacy, like that of her cousin Doug’s, will be remembered forever.