Cammi Granato (left) celebrates with her teammates after the United States first Women’s Worlds gold in 2005.
photo: Bjorn Tilly / Bildbyran
On 6 April 2005, Cammi Granato scored a goal midway through the second period of a game against Finland. It wasn’t a particularly important goal in that it made the score 4-0, and the Americans went on to win the preliminary-round game with ease, 8-1.
But it retrospect, it was important because this was the final goal of Granato’s sensational career, and from that day to this she has remained the top goalscorer in the history of the Women’s World Championship.
In nine WW events, she scored 44 goals in 43 games, an astounding and consistent rate of scoring that has yet to be matched (although Hilary Knight has 43 goals and will no doubt pass Granato at the next Women’s Worlds).
Granato also has ten goals in eleven career Olympics games, which gives her a nice and even total of 54 goals in 54 games combined.
She played in every women’s event from 1990 to 2005, starting at the inaugural tournament when she was just a few days shy of her 19th birthday. In fact, the gold medal game took place the day she turned 19.
Granato grew up in Illinois with one sister and four brothers, among whom was Tony, an NHLer. She came to hockey naturally, and in her late teens she opted to go to Concordia University in Montreal, where she played on the school team coached by Les Lawton, who took the Canadian women to gold in 1994. From there she transferred to Providence College and started her USA Hockey career in 1990, quickly establishing herself as an offensive threat by scoring nine goals in five games.
Granato was made team captain in 1997 by incoming coach Ben Smith, a role she thrived on through a team record six WW tournaments and two Olympics. Notably, she wore the C in 1998 when the U.S. won Olympic gold and again in 2005 when it won its first Women’s Worlds gold.
Granato was hero to a generation of American players, not just across the country watching games and cheering on her team but also in her dressing room. “She IS USA Hockey,” Angela Ruggiero once said. And she was right.
And then she wasn’t. On 24 August 2005, at the end of summer camp to start preparations for the Turin Olympics, Smith cut Granato. The player was shocked. The coach stood by his decision. And just like that Granato’s career was over.
"I don't want it to end this way," Granato said at the time, "but if this is how it does, holding that world championship cup over my head in my last game has a lot more meaning to me now than it did even then."
Since retirement Granato has continued to make history, in part looking back, in part moving forward. She was one of the first three women inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2008, and one of two inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010.
And, in September 2019 she became the first woman hired as a pro scout in the NHL, for the new Seattle NHL franchise that will be starting play in 2021/22.
Click here for the overview of stories.
But it retrospect, it was important because this was the final goal of Granato’s sensational career, and from that day to this she has remained the top goalscorer in the history of the Women’s World Championship.
In nine WW events, she scored 44 goals in 43 games, an astounding and consistent rate of scoring that has yet to be matched (although Hilary Knight has 43 goals and will no doubt pass Granato at the next Women’s Worlds).
Granato also has ten goals in eleven career Olympics games, which gives her a nice and even total of 54 goals in 54 games combined.
She played in every women’s event from 1990 to 2005, starting at the inaugural tournament when she was just a few days shy of her 19th birthday. In fact, the gold medal game took place the day she turned 19.
Granato grew up in Illinois with one sister and four brothers, among whom was Tony, an NHLer. She came to hockey naturally, and in her late teens she opted to go to Concordia University in Montreal, where she played on the school team coached by Les Lawton, who took the Canadian women to gold in 1994. From there she transferred to Providence College and started her USA Hockey career in 1990, quickly establishing herself as an offensive threat by scoring nine goals in five games.
Granato was made team captain in 1997 by incoming coach Ben Smith, a role she thrived on through a team record six WW tournaments and two Olympics. Notably, she wore the C in 1998 when the U.S. won Olympic gold and again in 2005 when it won its first Women’s Worlds gold.
Granato was hero to a generation of American players, not just across the country watching games and cheering on her team but also in her dressing room. “She IS USA Hockey,” Angela Ruggiero once said. And she was right.
And then she wasn’t. On 24 August 2005, at the end of summer camp to start preparations for the Turin Olympics, Smith cut Granato. The player was shocked. The coach stood by his decision. And just like that Granato’s career was over.
"I don't want it to end this way," Granato said at the time, "but if this is how it does, holding that world championship cup over my head in my last game has a lot more meaning to me now than it did even then."
Since retirement Granato has continued to make history, in part looking back, in part moving forward. She was one of the first three women inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2008, and one of two inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010.
And, in September 2019 she became the first woman hired as a pro scout in the NHL, for the new Seattle NHL franchise that will be starting play in 2021/22.
Click here for the overview of stories.