Angela Ruggiero (born January 3, 1980 in Panorama City, California, USA) is an American ice hockey player. She plays Defence.
In addition to being a member of the gold medal-winning 1998 United States Olympic Hockey Team and the silver medal-winning 2002 team, Ruggiero made several US professional hockey “firsts” January 28, 2005, when she played for the Tulsa Oilers in a Central Hockey League game against the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees.
While still a high school senior at Choate Rosemary Hall, she played on the Olympic team at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. She was the first woman to actively play in a regular season professional hockey game in the United States, at a position other than goalie. (Erin Whitten skated ceremoniously for 18 seconds with the Flint Generals in 1996, and Manon Rheaume tended goal for the Tampa Bay Lightning in a pre-season game in 1992). In addition, since her brother Bill Ruggiero also played for the Oilers, they were the first brother-sister combination to play professionally at the same time.
As a senior at Harvard University, she was the 2004 Patty Kazmaier Award winner as the top player in US women’s collegiate hockey. Her book Breaking the Ice details her experiences in toppling misconceptions about women’s hockey.
Ruggiero was also credited with the game-winning goal in the shoot-out that determined the winner at the 2005 Women’s World Ice Hockey Championships over the Canadian national women’s hockey team, winning the U.S.’s first ever gold at the world championships.
She was chosen to represent the United States in the 2006 Winter Olympics. During the Games she was widely quoted for the comments she made in Sports Illustrated online on February 13, 2006, regarding Team Canada’s behavior during the preliminary round of the women’s hockey tournament:
“I’m upset that Canada has been running up the score, especially against the host nation… There was no need for that. They’re trying to pad their stats … Canada is running up the score for whatever reasons — personal, short-term.”[1]
Her remarks were met with criticism from people ranging from members of Team Canada to sports commentators. Others felt she was speaking the truth, and had a right to say what she felt.
Source: Wikipedia contributors (2006). Angela Ruggiero. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:16, April 11, 2006
Angela’s Olympic Team Bio
