The United States of America sent 230 athletes to the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, the largest procession ever sent to that event. Expectations were high for the Americans, especially in the extremely popular worldwide sport of ice hockey. Once again however, both the men’s and women’s Team USA hockey teams failed to grab the gold medal.

The American women’s hockey team, led by Captain Meghan Duggan and head coach Katey Stone found success throughout the Olympic tournament this year. The ladies fought their way to the gold medal game, where they found themselves lining up against Team Canada. Canada failed to score a goal in the first 57 minutes of the game, until they scored two goals within the last 3 minutes of regulation. That scoring spree sent the game into overtime where Canada’s Marie-Phillip Poplin netted the game-winning goal, giving the Canadians the gold medal and the Americans the silver.

“I’m crying more because I look around at my teammates and I know how hard we worked every step of this journey,” said American forward Lyndsey Fry. “I think that’s the most heart-felt we’ve ever played and we played for each other. We really love each other.”

The American men’s hockey team, led by Captain Zach Parise and head coach Dan Bylsma scored a solid 20 goals throughout the Olympic tournament. They looked good coming out of the gate, winning four straight games including one against the home-country favorite Russian team. The seemingly unbeatable men fell hard from the top after their extremely close and devastating 1-0 loss in the semi-final game against Team Canada and the complete dismantling at the hands of Team Finland 5-0. Those two embarrassing losses took the Americans from keeping their eye on the gold to not getting any medal at all.

“We got frustrated. We started trying to beat guys one-on-one,” Parise said. “We just kind of stopped playing that team game that got us to where we are.”

These recent Olympic Games have marked another disappointing four years in which the American women team failed to win the gold since they last did it in 1998, and the men since they last saw gold in 1980, when the “Miracle on Ice” against the Soviet Union propelled them to the gold and before professional hockey players were allowed to play in the Olympics.

“Frustrating,” said forward Patrick Kane. “To say the least.”

Regardless of the sad showing by the American hockey teams, Team USA fans still had something to celebrate. The United States still finished second in the medal count trailing only the hometown Russian Federation. So at least Putin is happy.