While the opening ceremonies for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics have yet to happen, the USA women's ice hockey team kicked off their slate of preliminary round games on Thursday morning.
At the end of the first period, things looked good for the Americans on the scoreboard, as they held a 2-0 advantage against Finland. Early in the action, though, assistant captain Brianna Decker went down with a serious-looking injury and had to be stretchered off.
Frightening moment there on the ice with US forward Brianna Decker being essentially slew-footed from behind by Finland's Ronja Savolainen.
— John Wawrow (@john_wawrow) February 3, 2022
Decker immediately yelped in pain as Savolainen landed on her to the left of the US net. ...
According to Bryan Murphy of NBCNewYork.com, Decker is in her third Olympics. The 30-year-old forward won a gold medal with team USA at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and a silver medal at the 2014 games in Sochi.
The Americans second preliminary round contest is scheduled for 8:00 a.m. ET on Saturday against the Russian Olympic Committee.
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