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Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando, the twins who led Team USA to Olympic gold in 2018, will join former NHL goaltending great Ryan Miller in the 2022 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame class.
The class also includes Steve Cash, a three-time Paralympic gold medalist and five-time world champion, and the late Jim Johannson, who had a nearly two-decade executive career at USA Hockey. He died unexpectedly in January 2018, just weeks before the 2018 Winter Olympics where he would have served as the U.S. men’s hockey team’s general manager.
“Thankful to be part of such a unique, diverse and amazing class,” Miller said on a video call with the other inductees and Johannson’s widow, Abby. “I’ve watched all of these players play … and just really have fond memories with [Johannson]. Wonderful way to honor how good a person he was.”
Born in Grand Forks, North Dakota, the Lamoureux twins had a 14-year run with Team USA in international play during which they won six gold medals in the IIHF Women’s World Championships. The forwards were linemates throughout their careers.
It was their combined efforts in the final against archrival Canada at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, that solidified their legacy. Lamoureux-Morando scored a game-tying goal late in the third period to force overtime. Lamoureux-Davidson had the decisive goal in the shootout — a dazzling tally that she dubbed the “Oops I Did It Again” move — to lead the U.S. to its first Olympic hockey gold medal in 20 years.
“To be able to live out our dream in three Olympic Games and to finally get that gold in 2018 is something that we’ll always cherish,” Lamoureux-Morando said.
Lamoureux-Davidson expressed as much, if not more, pride in the national team’s push for a better contract as the success on the ice.
“The teams I was a part of, especially the great teams that I was a part of, it’s not just the medals we won but the change we made for women’s hockey,” she said. “We elevated the game.”
Miller wrote an Olympic legend of his own at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, leading Team USA to the gold-medal matchup against Canada before settling for the silver thanks to Sidney Crosby‘s overtime goal. Miller was named tournament MVP with a 1.30 goals-against average and .946 saves percentage in six games, both American Olympic records.
Miller played 18 seasons in the NHL with the Anaheim Ducks, Vancouver Canucks, St. Louis Blues and, most memorably, the Buffalo Sabres for 11 of those seasons. Miller won the Vezina Trophy in the 2009-10 season as the league’s top goaltender. He holds the Sabres’ records for most wins in a career (284) and in a season (41 in 2009-10).
Johannson was general manager of the men’s team that year before dying unexpectedly at age 53 a few weeks before the start of the tournament. He spent almost two decades at USA Hockey in that role, and during his tenure U.S. teams won 64 medals, including 34 gold.
“We think about Jimmy every day,” USA Hockey executive director Pat Kelleher said. “No matter where we go, especially internationally, his impact just for the people in all these other countries is still incredible. People bring up his name to me and it always brings a big smile when we get to talk about J.J.”
Cash won five world championships during his 16 seasons playing for the national sled hockey team. He was inspired by watching the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City before he even knew what sled hockey was.
“I thought that’s where my career path was going to be was I was going to be able to represent the United States, achieving my dreams on the ice like that,” Cash said. “Sled hockey, it allowed me to do that — achieve my dreams — I just did it in a different way.”
U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame inductees are chosen on the basis of extraordinary contribution to hockey in the United States. This is the 50th anniversary of the Hall of Fame, whose induction ceremony will be held Nov. 30 at the RiverCentre in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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