The IIHF is facing major backlash after Thursday\u2019s women\u2019s Olympic gold-medal game between the United States and Canada was decided in 3-on-3 overtime.<\/p>\n
The U.S. captured gold with a 2-1 victory, as Megan Keller buried the game-winner just minutes into the extra frame. American captain Hilary Knight had tied the game late in the third period, erasing a Canadian lead that had stood for much of the contest thanks to a shorthanded goal from Ontario\u2019s Kristin O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n
It was a dramatic finish to one of hockey\u2019s greatest rivalries, but not everyone was celebrating the format.<\/p>\n
Almost immediately after Keller\u2019s winner, fans, pundits and insiders took to social media to question why a gold medal, awarded only once every four years let\u2019s not forget, was decided in 3-on-3 play instead of traditional 5-on-5 hockey. No matter which teams end up in the finals. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhy a Gold Medal game has to be 3V3, despite being full 20 minute periods, is very much beyond me. Normalize full strength do-or-die games, please,\u201d one user wrote.<\/p>\n
Another added, \u201c3v3 is fun to watch but they should play 5v5 to determine the gold medal.\u201d<\/p>\n
A third comment captured the frustration many felt: \u201cI love 3v3 overtime hockey\u2026 in the regular season. It should be criminal to end any playoff-type game with 3v3, let alone for the GOLD MEDAL IN THE OLYMPICS THAT\u2019S ONLY PLAYED EVERY FOUR YEARS.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Team USA celebrates another historic gold, the debate over how championship games should be decided is only just beginning. the IIHF might have to face reality, and some tough questions\u2026 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The IIHF is facing major backlash after Thursday\u2019s women\u2019s Olympic gold-medal game between the United States and Canada…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,30126,23908,448,123129,4553,82,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-487916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-gold-medal","11":"tag-iihf","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-overtime","14":"tag-rules","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}