NAGANO, Japan - Cammi Granato (Downers Grove,Ill.), who has a "lucky frog" named Floppy and a big brother who plays in the NHL, was the first to receive one of these first-time Olympic gold medal for women's hockey.

Granato

Canada's Manon Rheaume misses the puck to give the USA the lead in their gold medal game. (AP)

bowed her head, broke into a smile, blinked back some tears, then grabbed her face hard with both hands.

Tricia Dunn (Derry, N.H.) was next. She screamed and raised her fist as if to say, "Drop the puck! Let's play two!" Lisa Brown-Miller (Union Lake, Mich.) bawled unabashedly.

ONE BY ONE, THESE talented, tenacious, self-sacrificing U.S. hockey women who made history here at Big Hat Tuesday night by beating Canada 3-1, made their gold-medal curtain call, during an emotionally-charged presentation headed up by Anita DeFrants, vice president of the International Olympic Committee.

When the ceremonial presentation came to goalie Sarah Tueting (Winnetka, Ill.) , who had shut out the high-powered Canadians over the first 55 minutes, 59 seconds, there was a dramatic pause.

Tueting, a 21-year-old cellist who dabbles in Zen Buddhism and had just played the game of her life, drew back her shoulders, adjusted her smile and took a deep breath. After the medal was hung, Tueting sheepishly glanced down, as if to see if it was really there.

These young women put their lives on hold to win the gold.

"It's just unbelievable! Our hard work paid off," shrieked U.S. team forward Gretchen Ulion (Marlborough, Conn.) who scored the first goal Tuesday night. "That (goal) gave us confidence. We knew then, it was possible to win."

U.S. defenseman Sue Merz (Greenwich, Conn.) said, "I've seen the 'Miracle on Ice ('80 U.S. men's hockey Olympic gold-medal victory over Russia) on TV . . . (and) that memory was in the back of my head when we went out on the ice for this game."

ONLY AFTER KNOWING all that has gone into this Olympic inauguration of a sport for an entire gender can you truly comprehend the magic of the moment. And how a few of these players wanted to pinch themselves.

Let's face it.You don't beat Canada in hockey or curling without wondering if you're awake.

These two hockey teams had grown to mirror each other, grown to loathe each other, as they had played 14 times going into Tuesday night's game. It was a very long road to Nagano. They each had won seven games, but - both sides knew - only one game really mattered.

So after a scoreless first period, the U.S. women took control of the puck and took a 1-0 lead on Ulion's power-play goal 2:38 into the second period. Sandra Whyte (Saugus, Mass.) had the assist. The Canadians managed only four shots on goal that period.

Then in the third period, the Canadians, behind star forward Danielle Goyette, forced the action by skating harder, attacking stronger, but fell behind 2-0 when Shelley Looney (Trenton, Mich.) scored another power-play goal at 10:59 of the third period. Whyte (remember the name) had the assist.

Finally, it was the Americans who were short-handed, and nine seconds into that power play, Goyette took a pass from Hayley Wickenheiser in front of the net, and beat Tueting at point-blank range. It was 2-1.

THE U.S. ADDED AN EMPTY-NET goal by Whyte in the final eight seconds. But this game was over early in the third period when the Canadians found that they couldn't intimidate the Americans simply by picking up their game.

"Our girls were on fire in the third period," said Canada coach Shannon Miller. "The only thing I'm sorry about is that we didn't score a little bit earlier that period because I think the flood gates would've opened."

To know how good the U.S. women felt in victory was to see how much pain the Canadians showed in defeat.

Whyte - the U.S. player that the Canadian players most loved to hate - had denied saying anything derogatory about Goyette's 77-year-old father, who had passed away one day before the Opening Ceremony after battling Alzheimer's disease.

MILLER TOLD REPORTERS that she had "heard" the comment following Saturday night's preliminary-round game in which the U.S. scored six unaswered goals at the end to win 7-4.

Miller was asked if there was closure on the issue.

"First of all, none of us have ever identified anybody as far as saying anything," said Miller, a bit testily, after the game. "Something was said to Danielle Goyette (Saturday night) and it was addressed - I feel quite appropriately. And we've moved on."

Unfortunately for the Canadians, moving on meant all the way to the silver medal ceremony.

Canadian women have ruled the world in hockey throughout the '90s. Aside from that, the fact that Whyte had two assists and a goal Tuesday night made this Canadian defeat almost unbearable to the Canadians.

BUT THE BIGGER PICTURE did provide some solace to the Canadian coach.

"When they showed Cammi Granato's face on the big screen, and an Olympic gold medal going around her neck, my feelings inside me changed very quickly," Miller said. "I had a feeling of joy go through my body.

"I realized that an Olympic medal was being hung around a female hockey player . . . and I couldn't believe the impact it had on me."

None of us could. This was history being made.

Ray Buck is CBS SportsLine's national columnist.