In candid new book, the Lamoureux twins reveal their fear of being cut before they brought home Olympic gold
Feb. 23—It is now the most famous goal in U.S. women's hockey history.
Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson, with Olympic gold on the line, skated toward Canadian goalie Shannon Szabados in a sudden-death shootout. She faked a shot to get Szabados to drop to her knees, then she moved the puck to her backhand and sent Szabados lunging to her right, only to pull the puck all the way back to her forehand to slam it into an open net.
When U.S. goalie Maddie Rooney stopped the ensuing attempt by a Canadian player, that iconic Lamoureux-Davidson shootout goal stood as the Olympic gold-medal winner.
The Americans won hockey gold in 2018 for the first time in 20 years, and it was delivered by twin sisters from Grand Forks. Monique Lamoureux-Morando scored the game-tying goal in the third period and Jocelyne won it in the shootout.
In the aftermath, they appeared on The Today Show, Ellen and the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
But months before they became Olympic heroes, the Lamoureux twins thought they were on the outs with the U.S. coaching staff and that they were going to be cut from the team.
That's one of the many candid new details in their book, 'Dare to Make History: Chasing a Dream and Fighting for Equity,' which was released Tuesday. It is expected to be available at Ferguson Books in the Grand Cities Mall. It is also available online.
In November, three months before the Olympics, the Lamoureux twins were benched for the entire Four Nations tournament. Soon after that tournament, USA Hockey added two players to the roster — one forward and one defenseman. At the time, Jocelyne was playing forward and Monique was playing defense.
"The two of us did some quick analysis. We had been scratched from the entire Four Nations tournament, and now with two months before the Olympics, the coaches had brought in (extra players)," Monique wrote in the book. "The roster was clearly in flux; it didn't take a genius to know that Jocelyne and I were on the chopping block."
The Lamoureux twins admitted in the book they knew the U.S. coaches were not among their fans.
They also recalled the strange meeting right before final cuts, when the coaching staff notified Monique that after playing defense for the last three-and-a-half years, she was moving to forward for the Olympics, and that the twin sisters would be relegated to fourth-line duty.
"Suddenly, I got it and realized that they really wanted to send us home, but for some reason that we will never know, they weren't going to," Monique wrote.
Good thing for USA Hockey: Jocelyne ended up leading the U.S. in both goals and points. Monique finished third in points, despite the fact that the twins ranked 12th and 13th on the U.S. team in time on ice at the Olympics.
The book is about much more than their experience at the 2018 PyeongChang Games, though.
Alternating between Jocelyne and Monique's voices, it begins with their childhood in Grand Forks and details the start of their hockey careers, including their appreciation for their youth coaches as well as the jeers they heard from parents as they played boys hockey.
The book goes through their time at Shattuck-St. Mary's, the University of Minnesota, their decision to transfer to UND, their repeated triumphs at the World Championships and their heartbreaks at the Olympics in 2010 and 2014.
Off the ice, the book gives a behind-the-scenes look at what was happening as the U.S. team threatened to boycott of the 2017 World Championships in order to secure equal treatment from USA Hockey, including the hundreds of phone calls the National Team made to prospective replacement players.
They also take readers through struggles and setbacks in both their personal lives and hockey careers, how they handled them and who they leaned on to get through it.
Throughout the book, the Lamoureux twins mention numerous Grand Forks residents who played roles in their lives from their childhood to present day.
The Lamoureux twins announced their retirement from their playing career earlier this month after winning six World Championship gold medals and three Olympic medals.
They went on the Today Show on Tuesday morning to talk about their book.
Olympic gold medalists Monique Lamoureux-Morando & Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson joined the @TODAYshow this morning to talk about their decision to retire from hockey, the future of women's hockey and much more.
(via @3rdHourTODAY) @LamoureuxTwins pic.twitter.com/e33DBD7DuZ
— #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) February 23, 2021
