updated 6:54 p.m. ET Feb. 20, 2006

TURIN, Italy - Danielle Goyette wanted to skate circles around this moment forever, wearing a gold medal around her neck and waving a Canadian flag wildly over her head.

The three-time Olympian’s teammates eventually had to grab her by the flag and drag her to the locker room. The 40-year-old knew she probably won’t skate for Canada again — and she’ll never skate for a team as good as the Canadians who dominated Turin to win the Olympic women’s hockey tournament.

They scored with pinpoint passes and dazzling pirouettes, soft wrist shots and firm tip-ins. The 4-1 victory Monday night wasn’t the rematch everyone expected with the U.S., but Canada still sent upstart Sweden home with the same thrashing it had planned for its American archrivals.

When the fourth goal bulged Swedish goalie Kim Martin’s net, she shrugged her shoulders slightly and looked straight ahead — perhaps all the way to Vancouver in four years, when the world might stand a better chance.

“We showed Hockey Canada is dominant,” Goyette said. “This makes it worth everything we did, all the months we spent working on this day. We didn’t end up with the final matchup we expected, but we got the same result.”

Behind Martin, the 19-year-old puck-stopper extraordinaire, Sweden managed a 3-2 shootout win over the U.S. on Friday in a semifinal immediately called the biggest upset in the sport’s history.

But starting with Gillian Apps’ goal on a surreal blind backhand just 3:15 into the gold medal game, the Canadians showed their game would be the same, regardless of the opponent. They had worked too long — for nearly seven months straight — and much too hard to leave with anything but duplicates of their Salt Lake City golds.

“To defend the gold for our team and every Canadian back home is huge,” said Hayley Wickenheiser, the tournament MVP. “For us, it’s all gold or nothing. There’s no other medal to win in this tournament. That’s the pressure we put on ourselves. We’re just happy we can land in Canada with everybody smiling.”

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The relentless forechecking, heady passing and sturdy defense — improbably questioned by the Swedes beforehand — were practically flawless in a game just as one-sided as every other in their march through Italy by a combined score of 46-2.

When it was over, the Canadians roared off their bench and hit goalie Charline Labonte so hard that they dislodged the net from its moorings. Goyette jubilantly threw her glove and stick in the direction of the overhead scoreboard, while Wickenheiser held her adopted son, Noah.

The Americans, who beat Finland 4-0 in the bronze-medal game earlier, gratefully received their medals on the ice after Canada’s Meghan Agosta and Jennifer Botterill finished displaying a Canadian flag sewn to an Italian flag.

“It’s far and away the best team I’ve ever played for,” defenseman Cheryl Pounder said. “We saw all the sweat going into it, and that’s why all the tears came to the surface at the end.”

Several Canadians wept while getting their medals — Pounder crying the most, just as in Utah four years before — and none could stand still.

After singing along to “O Canada,” the Americans and Canadians shook hands and hugged. Sadly, it was their only meeting of the Olympics.

Jayna Hefford added a goal and an assist, while Caroline Ouellette and Cherie Piper also contributed goals as Canada dominated the first two periods against Sweden. Gunilla Andersson scored just the second goal of the tournament against Canada in the third, ruining Labonte’s shutout bid long after the Swedes still had a chance.

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Their hope was frozen early at a rink kept chillier than a Canadian prairie wind to improve the ice quality. Frostbitten fingers didn’t deter the hundreds of proud Great White Northerners who drank hot chocolate, wrapped themselves in beach-towel-sized maple leaf flags and rang cowbells amid chants of “Go, Canada! Go!”

The Canadians now have two golds and a silver from three Olympic women’s hockey tournaments. The Swedes have their nation’s best finish in an international event — and judging by their wide smiles as they received silver medals, they’re thrilled with that.

Sweden already had won its biggest prize in the semifinals. Before Friday, neither North American team had ever lost in an international tournament — except to each other. The shocker was tough for the U.S. but a welcome development for a sport enduring grumbles about the huge parity gap stretching across the Atlantic Ocean.

The gap might be shrinking, but it’s still awfully big when Canada is on its game.

“It’s kind of mixed feelings after losing a game like this,” Sweden forward Erika Holst said. “We’re disappointed, but at the same time, we know Canada is really good, and we had a great tournament.”

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