Back to the Ghetto. I was not looking forward to returning to Peaks Arena - the seats were uncomfortable, the sight lines were iffy, the bleachers were dangerous for my child, the lack of running water was irritating, and the parking was a pain in the neck.

When we showed up for this game, the first thing we noticed - SCALPERS! Utah has some of the most lax laws regarding scalping in the country - which results in the most friendly and pleasant ticket scalpers you'll ever meet.

Even though this was Women's ice hockey, it was a game featuring the United States - so there was a good demand for tickets.

When we got to the arena, we were very happy with our seats - they were front row in the corner that the U.S. attacked twice. Since they were in front, my daughter was actually able to watch the game because we didn't have to worry about her falling fifty feet to her death.

Up front, we were also right in front of the cheerleaders. Um, yeah, there were cheerleaders at a hockey game. As part of the Olympic experience, they recruited a group of female cheerleaders/dancers from the local universities to lead cheers and entertain.

Lame. Very very lame.

Again, the crowd for this game wasn't made up of hockey fans - but they were very loud and vocal. There's something inherently cool about watching your favorite sporting event with 6000 people, chanting "U-S-A! U-S-A!" at the top of your lungs.

There were a lot of teenage girls there shouting things like, "Girl power!" and "Girls rule!" Young female empowerment flying in the face of cheerleaders. Somewhere Susan B. Anthony is smiling.

I learned a few things from the crowd. Apparently, the Olympic host country has an obligation to support all the countries that compete. This was taken to a new extreme with a crowd of really tall, pasty white guys waving Chinese flags and shouting, "Go China!" Somewhere Chairman Mao is busting a gut laughing.

And of course, I learned later that some people didn't understand why I would want to see women's hockey. I explained that I like women's hockey because the women play at a high level of skill and speed, plus the U.S. and Canada have a great bitter rivalry that makes it fun to follow. When people still don't understand, I explain, "It doesn't suck like women's basketball." Then people nod and realize that not all women's sports are as unwatchable as women's basketball. Somewhere WNBA players are not laughing.

In all seriousness, women's hockey is fun to watch. Unlike some women's sports where the competition is marred with obviously inferior play, the women can shoot and pass at a high skill level. If you like men's hockey, you'll find the women's game is just as competitive.

Of course, if you don't like men's hockey, what are you doing reading this?

THE GAME

In Women's hockey, there's the U.S. and Canada - and then there's everybody else. China is a competitive team in the "everybody else" league - but not remotely in the same league as the U.S. Still, I was looking forward to this game - the U.S. team was warming up for their inevitable gold-medal game against Canada while China featured goaltender Hong Guo, nicknamed the "Great Wall".

Since our seats were on the Chinese defensive side of the rink, I watched the Chinese players during warm ups. I was pleasantly surprised by a few of the Chinese forwards - they could skate and had some pretty good zing on their shots. But watching the Chinse defense-women, their skating skills were.... um, not good.

And the goalie was as good as advertised - not the quickest goalie, but good with position and not getting caught scrambling. Her 59 saves kept the game from becoming... well, she was good.

Game started - Cammi Granato scored a minute into the game and the rout was on. The U.S. team peppered the Chinese team with shots. The Chinese would get the puck out of the zone, but they just couldn't make a pass in the neutral zone to get any counter-attack started.

Cammi Granato got a hat trick - but no one threw any hats. Probably due to the crowd not knowing a thing about hockey and hockey traditions. Though, it may also have been because Cammi's third goal was on a deflection - and with the mediocre sight lines in the rink, it was difficult to tell she'd gotten the goal until the announcement after the puck had already been dropped.

Also, note that China scored a goal. It was pretty amazing - the Chinese player carried the puck over the red line and dumped it in on net. It bounced twice, hit American goalie Sarah Teuting, trickled in between her legs, and barely crossed the line. The Chinese celebrated it. Sarah Teuting watched the replay on the big screen - she didn't seem very happy about it. Probably even more so when she realized that her teammates were probably going to make fun of her about it.

Fun game. Not a close game by any means, but the Chinese team was very competitive. They were just no match for the Americans.

THE HIT

As the clock expired at the end of the first period, Jing Zhang - a Chinese forward - chased the puck towards the corner boards inside their zone. As the horn sounded, U.S. player Tricia Dunn hit her from behind - jamming her head-first into the boards. The Chinese girl was motionless on the ice for a few minutes - eventually she was helped off the ice and was able to play later in the game.

Note that in real life as in sports, women are generally much nicer to each other than men. If a hit like this had happened in a men's game, the Chinese would've run into the US locker room to take turns pummelling Tricia Dunn. As it was, the Chinese players stood by their injured teammate while the U.S. teammates skated off the ice wondering why hits like that are wasted on players not wearing red maple leafs on their jerseys.

Tricia Dunn was assessed a major penalty and a game misconduct (kicked out of the game). While she didn't talk to reporters, she told her teammates that it was an accident - that she was trying to stop, got caught a skate edge, lost her balance, and fell into the Chinese girl. I'd like to think that it's true. Because if not, it's easily the dirtiest play I've ever seen in hockey.

Considering the differential of talent level between the U.S. and China, it was like watching Dale Hunter/Claude Lemieux/Marty McSorley hitting a geriatric 70 year old in a non-contact game. Entertaining, yes. But really not cool - seeing that the U.S. team was up 8-1 against an overmatched Chinese team. I'm just glad it didn't start a trend - I don't need to see the little STOP signs put on the back of jerseys like they do in kid's leagues.

A fun game. And because the seats were good, I didn't notice how awful the Arena was... as much. Still, I was thankful that I wasn't coming back to this place for the rest of my trip.

                        1ST  2ND  3RD     TOTAL
                        ---  ---  ---     -----
    CHINA                0    1    0        1
    UNITED STATES        3    5    4       12  FINAL


First Period -- 
    1, United States, C. Granato (K. Wendell, N. Darwitz), 1:19. 
    2, United States, S. Looney (C. Bailey, L. Baker), 7:04. 
    3, United States, C. Granato, 16:30. 
    
    Penalties -- 
    L. Wang, China (slashing), 2:54; 
    T. Dunn, United States (interference), 4:34; 
    X. Ma, China (slashing), 9:29. 

Second Period -- 
    4, United States, K. King (J. Potter, C. Kennedy), 7:48. 
    5, United States, L. Baker (L. Wall), 9:22. 
    6, United States, J. Chu (C. Kennedy, A. Kilbourne), 9:57. 
    7, United States, K. King (A. Mleczko, A. Ruggiero), 10:31. 
    1. China, X. Yang (L. Wang), 16:01. 
    8, United States, N. Darwitz (K. Wendell), 19:50.
     
    Penalties -- 
    T. Dunn, United States, minor-misconduct (checking from behind), 0:00. 

Third Period -- 
    9, United States, L. Baker (K. King), 4:03. 
    10, United States, C. Granato (J. Chu), 4:33. 
    11, United States, A. Ruggiero (K. King, J. Potter), 14:56. 
    12, United States, S. Merz (S. Looney), 16:30. 
    
    Penalties -- 
    X. Yang, China (tripping), 7:10; 
    J. Potter, United States (roughing), 17:26.           
               

   SHOTS ON GOAL:       1ST  2ND  3RD     TOTAL
                        ---  ---  ---     -----
                  CHN    3    3    4       10
                  USA   24   23   24       71

Goalies -- 
     China, Hong Guo  (71-59). 
     United States, Sarah Tueting (10-9).

Referees --  
     Julie L Bissonnette; 
     Laura Lynn Vanderhorst; Beverly Sue Cassidy.

     ATT: 6,325