Canada will enter the 2002 Winter Games as the top-seeded team in the women's hockey tournament.
But the Americans, who took gold in the first Olympic women's hockey competition in 1998, will be on home ice in Utah.
And Team USA could have a psychological advantage over the Canadians, too, depending on what happens in this week's International Ice Hockey Federation's Women's World Hockey Championship in Minnesota.
Since international play began in 1990, the Canadians have dominated the sport. They have won all six world championships and every other major international tournament except for two, including the Nagano Olympics.
But that's the past.
This year, the U.S. has beaten Canada in three of four meetings between the two national teams, including a two-game split at the Four Nations Cup in Provo last November. And Team USA is 40-1-1 so far this season, playing a schedule of international, college and club teams.
Despite a few injuries and illnesses, U.S. coach Ben Smith feels that his squad is as ready as ever to finally end Canada's dominance of the World Championship tournament.
"Obviously, we think it's important because we've been working toward it all year long," Smith said. "It's one of the things that makes the competitiveness and rivalry between nations so strong.
"Canada has got something that everybody else wants, and we've been the closest rival and have had opportunities in the past couple years to make a run at that title, and it's something we'd like to like to do."
For the first time, U.S. team members spent the season living and training together in Lake Placid, N.Y. They will do the same next year in preparation for the Salt Lake Olympics.
Unlike other international squads, most of them thrown together a few weeks before the World Championship, the Americans have been practicing and playing as a cohesive unit, with only short breaks away from each other, since September.
If the U.S. is ever going to break through the wall of Canadian dominance, this could be the time.
"I don't think anybody has the type of program we do. The European teams put a lot of weight into their club programs," Smith said.
"This has given us an opportunity to keep our veteran players playing in a competitive state and give our younger players an opportunity to grow."
The Americans' march toward a World Championship, in some ways considered more prestigious than the Olympic Games, begins Monday night at 6:30 p.m. (MST) in St. Cloud, Minn., against Germany.
The Americans play China on Tuesday and always-tough Finland on Thursday to complete pool play. The semifinals are scheduled for Saturday with the gold- and bronze-medal games set for next Sunday.
The seeding for the Olympics was decided by the outcome of last year's World Championship. For the sixth time in six World Championship tournaments, the Americans took second behind Canada.
But this year's tournament will be held at various locations in Minnesota, and Smith is excited about having home-ice advantage.
"I think it should be a good showcase for our sport and a good look at what things should be like in Salt Lake," Smith said.
"The reigning champion is a team that's never been beaten (in the World Championships) but I think is going to be pushed by several of the teams."
The 20-player Team USA roster includes 13 women who earned gold medals in Japan three years ago. But the ages of team members range all the way from 17 (high-schooler Natalie Darwitz) to 30 (Cammi Granato).
The leading scorer is Krissy Wendell, a 19-year-old ball of fire who scored 72 points in 37 games before missing most of March with mononucleosis. Wendell, fresh out of high school, recently committed to play hockey for the University of Minnesota, although not until after the Olympics in 2002.
Granato, who just turned 30, is a close second on the team in scoring. Granato, the team's longtime captain, is generally recognized as the most accomplished female hockey player in U.S. history. She is the only American to have played on all six — now, seven — World Championship tournament teams.
"For a lot of the older players this could be our last time around in the World Championships so it means a lot, and we're very hungry to win gold as a preview to what's ahead" in Utah next year, Granato said. "The teams (Canada and the U.S.) are very evenly matched and it could go either way."
Twenty-two-year-old Hayley Wickenheiser leads a veteran unit of Canadians in search of a seventh world title.
"She's a very strong skater. She's got a lot of confidence with the puck," Smith said of Wickenheiser. "And she's really a vital cog in their offensive scheme and defensive scheme, so you have to be alert when she's on the prowl."
While the Canadians have been beaten over the years, they play extremely well in big games, including a pair of overtime victories over the Americans in previous World Championship gold-medal games.
Granato figures the long year of training will pay off late in games for the U.S.
"Most of us feel the best we've ever felt because of the practice and conditioning. We've never been pushed like this," she said. "That has transferred over onto the ice because we play the same way in the third period as we do in the first period because of the program."
In the Four Nations Cup this year, Canada lost to the U.S. in round-robin play, 4-1, but captured a 2-0 victory three days later with the title on the line. That was the Americans' only loss this year. And while Canada did lose twice to the U.S. during the NHL All-Star break, both games were considered exhibitions.
Team USA's tie came late in the season, Feb. 17, in Lake Placid against a Canadian club team whose members included players from the Canadian national team.
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