The women's hockey Rivalry Series returns tonight

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One of the best rivalries in sports resumes tonight as the Canadian and U.S. women's national hockey teams open their 2024-25 Rivalry Series in San Jose, Calif.

The five-game barnstorming tour, designed to showcase the top two teams on the planet in the time between their higher-profile showdowns at the world championships and the Olympics, continues Friday night in Utah and Sunday in Idaho before concluding in February with a pair of games in Atlantic Canada.

Canada and the U.S. have owned international women's hockey since the first world championship took place in 1990. They've met in 22 of the 23 worlds finals since then (Canada leads the title count 13-10 after winning last April in Utica, N.Y.) while also squaring off in six of the seven Olympic gold-medal games since women's hockey joined the Winter Games in 1998 (Canada is up 5-2 in golds after beating the Americans in 2022 in Beijing).

If familiarity breeds contempt, then it's no wonder these neighbouring teams developed such a searing disdain for one other. And those hard feelings helped forge some of the greatest moments in Olympic hockey history. Think of an enraged Hayley Wickenheiser accusing the Americans of trampling on a Canadian flag before the 2002 Olympic final in Salt Lake City. Or Canadian players gleefully smoking cigars and drinking beer on the ice after capturing the gold in 2010 in Vancouver. Or the raw ecstasy and agony following Canada's incredible comeback to win the classic 2014 Olympic title game in Sochi. Or the Americans' heart-pounding shootout victory to take back the gold in 2018 in South Korea.

The Rivalry Series was created after those 2018 Games to give these teams more opportunities to play each other. The stakes (and the intensity) are obviously much lower than at the Olympics and the world championships, but the series has produced some dramatic moments of its own. In each of the last two years, Canada rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win the final four games and take the series.

PWHL training camps open next week, and the new season starts Nov. 30. Last year, four Rivalry Series games were played before the PWHL's New Year's Day launch. But with the season beginning earlier this time, it was less feasible to fit seven Rivalry Series games into the league's schedule.

Having said that, the PWHL clearly still recognizes the importance of these Canada-U.S. games. The league will take a week-long break around the final two Rivalry Series games on Feb. 6 in Halifax and Feb. 8 in Summerside, P.E.I. A 3½-week pause will follow in the spring to accommodate the world championship, taking place April 9-20 in the Czech Republic.

For more on the Rivalry Series and how the PWHL is creating new opportunities for Canadian and U.S. players, read this story from the Canadian Press.