SPOKANE, Wash. — Not many athletes can say they retired after an undefeated season.
It would be a great way for Sue Merz to go out, and the veteran defenseman for the U.S. women's hockey team has a realistic shot at doing just that.
Merz scored the second goal of the game and added an assist Thursday night as Team USA remained unbeaten (29-0) on the Skate to Salt Lake pre-Olympic tour. Team captain Cammi Granato recorded a hat trick as the Americans routed China, 12-3, before 9,137 fired-up fans in the Spokane Arena.
Merz, 29, is one of only two players along with Granato who have been on the national team since sanctioned international play began in 1990. And she is the only woman on the 20-player Olympic roster who has decided, for sure, to hang up the skates after the Olympic gold-medal game Feb. 21 in West Valley City.
"I love the sport, I haven't stopped loving it, but at the same time I think I'm ready for something new," said Merz, who is the team's second-leading goal scorer among defensemen this season. "If I could make a million bucks doing this, I'd keep doing it."
With no professional league waiting to draft her, the best Merz can do is a second Olympic gold medal. But she'll gladly take it — it's what the Greenwich, Conn., native and her teammates have been working toward since the national team was selected in August. And if the Americans win their last three pre-Olympic games as expected, then sweep all five contests in the Olympic tournament, Merz will retire after an undefeated season as well.
"That would be ideal," she said Thursday, looking a bit ragged after a game that ended about 11 p.m. local time. "But that's not really how I'm looking at it. I'm kind of going day by day. The way we played tonight, I think it's going to be a tough tournament. You can't look past the team in front of you, and I think that's what we're really focused on."
The Americans will play two more games against the Chinese, including Saturday night in Boise, then meet Russia in a closed-to-the-public practice game Feb. 7 in the E Center. The United States has never lost to China or Russia, and only Finland presents a real threat in the three pool-play games of the Olympic tournament.
The team that likely will stand in the way of both an undefeated season and Team USA's second Olympic gold medal is defending World Champion Canada. The Americans defeated Canada in each of the eight games they played this season.
"In a few of those games, we were behind and we came back, so that showed our determination," Merz said. "But that doesn't mean that they're not going to come out like bandits on the 21st."
Granato, the oldest player on the roster, will turn 31 in March and has hinted she may retire after the Winter Games. Assistant captain Karyn Bye, also 30, has said she will wait and see, leaving the door open for a return.
But considering how rapidly the skills of girls' and women's hockey players in the United States are improving as the sport expands, Merz figures she'd have her gloves full trying to make the 2006 Olympic team at the age of 33.
"You'll see an even bigger number of girls coming out for the next Olympic trials," she said. "I think we're paving the way for younger kids.
"I definitely want to work with athletes — probably coach," Merz said of her future.
U.S. coach Ben Smith said having Merz on the blue line is "just like having a separate set of coach's eyes out there."
"She's a very heady player. She understands every facet of what we're trying to do on offense and defense," he said. "And she's a great, skilled athlete. She skates beautifully. She handles the puck. She shoots it."
Merz wasn't the only one shooting the puck Thursday. The Americans outshot China 52-8.
E-MAIL: zman@desnews.com