Women's ice hockey team makes 1st Olympic goal

Team Korea’s forward Randi Hee-soo Griffin scores in a game against Japan in the Gwandong Ice Hockey Center in the eastern city of Gangneung, Wednesday. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Team Korea’s forward Randi Hee-soo Griffin hugs teammates after making her team’s first Olympic goal in a game against Japan in the Gwandong Ice Hockey Center in the eastern city of Gangneung, Wednesday. / Yonhap

Team Korea’s forward Randi Hee-soo Griffin celebrates after making her team’s first Olympic goal in a game against Japan in the Gwandong Ice Hockey Center in the eastern city of Gangneung, Wednesday. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

American-born forward scores Korea’s first Olympic goal

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Team Korea finally scored its first Olympic goal in a game against Japan, Wednesday.

Despite the saga, the unified hockey team lost to Japan 1-4.

With an assist from teammate Park Yoon-jung, forward Randi Hee-soo Griffin scored the goal in the second period. Griffin became the first Korean to score a goal in the team’s Olympic debut. Her goal pushed fans at the Kwandong Ice Hockey Center into excitement.

Born to an American father and a Korean mother, Griffin joined South Korea’s women’s national team in 2017. Griffin earned her bachelor’s degree in human evolutionary biology from Harvard University and then went to Duke University for a doctoral program in evolutionary anthropology and took a gap year to fully focus on her training in the women’s ice hockey team.

Her uniform number 37 shows the year when her grandmother on her mother’s side was born.

Japan scored first in the first period. Forward Hanae Kubo scored the first goal about one minute after the game began, which was followed by another goal from her teammate two minutes later.

Team Korea became aggressive. Forwards Hwang Chung-gum and Lee Jin-gyu shot at Japan’s net, but they were stopped by Japanese goalie Akane Konishi. Defense Eom Su-yeon prevented Japan from scoring one more goal by hitting the puck from a Japanese player back. Japan dominated the first period with 13 shots against Korean goalie Shin So-jung, compared with 4 shots by Team Korea at Japan’s net.

The first period ended with Japan taking a 2-0 lead. Jo Su-sie said she and her teammates made mistakes earlier in the game, which allowed Japan to score two goals.

The game became tight as Korea scored its first goal in the second period.

Adding to 2-1 lead, Koike Shiori scored a shorthanded goal: and another goal came in the third period.

Korea’s goalie Shin So-jung stopped 44 shots from the Japanese team, limiting her team’s loss to a relatively small margin.

Before their showdown, Korea and Japan lost their two previous games against Switzerland and Sweden, eliminating them from the medal playoffs.

Prior to PyeongChang, the two countries faced off against each other three times. Japan won all three games. Japan is ranked 9th in the world.

Before the game, head coach Sarrah Murray said the coaching staff tried not to put too much pressure on the players.

“We’re just making sure that the players don’t get to excited and put too much pressure and stress on this game (against Japan),” she told reporters.

“It’s Japan and we want to beat them but it’s just another game for us. We need to prepare the same way that we prepared today and we’re just going to try to rest the girls. It’s been a tough tournament and two tough games and then we had a day off and then we have Japan, so make sure that everybody’s condition is good and look forward to that game.”