Lamoureux Twins Share Another Athletic Achievement By Joining U.S. Hockey Hall Of Fame

(L-R) Monique Lamoureux-Morando and Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson pose with their plaques before being inducted into the 2022 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame on Nov. 30, 2022 in St Paul, Minn.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Twin sisters Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando went through their hockey careers practically connected at the hip. 
The North Dakota natives played together in high school and college, and then lined up together on the U.S. women’s hockey team for 14 years.
Fittingly, the twins shared another athletic milestone together on Wednesday night when they were inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. The Class of 2022 was rounded out by four-time Paralympic medalist Steve Cash, the late longtime USA Hockey executive Jim Johannson and two-time Olympian Ryan Miller. 
One thing the sisters didn’t experience together, however, was the news of their selection.
Pat Kelleher, the executive director of USA Hockey, called Lamoureux-Davidson when she was with her sister at the airport waiting for a flight.
“When I got the call from Pat I was thinking, ‘What could I possibly be in trouble for?” she said. “It was totally unexpected.”
Kelleher told Lamoureux-Davidson not to tell her sister the news, as he wanted to call Monique himself to let her know. With the plane set to take off, Lamoureux-Davidson kept the secret throughout their flight. 
“(Jocelyne) was like, ‘Did you check your email,’ and I was like, ‘No, we just got off a plane,’” Lamoureux-Morando said. “(Jocelyne) said, ‘Give Pat a call.’ I asked why and she said, ‘I can’t tell you.’”
That was one of very few milestones the sisters experienced separately in their athletic lives, as the two enjoyed incredibly similar careers that ended, fittingly, with a joint retirement in 2021. In 137 international games, Lamoureux-Davidson tallied 138 points, while Lamoureux-Morando recorded 143 points in 135 games. 
As far as team success, the twins played in seven world championships and three Olympic Winter Games together, winning gold or silver in all of those tournaments. 
And not only did they win medals together, but they each produced their defining moment in a U.S. jersey in the 2018 Olympic gold-medal game against Canada. 
Trailing 2-1 with less than seven minutes left, Lamoureux-Morando scored on a breakaway while Canada was making a line change. It turned out Lamoureux-Davidson was heading to the bench as well when it happened too. 
“I didn’t even see it because I was going for a change,” she said. 
Her time was coming.

(L-R) Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando celebrate after winning the women's gold-medal game against Canada at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 on Feb. 22, 2018 in Gangneung, South Korea.

Lamoureux-Morando’s goal sent the game to overtime, then it went to a shootout. That’s when Lamoureux-Davidson sealed it with a flashy move before finding the back of the net — donned the “Oops…I Did It Again” goal by her sister — to end a 20-year gold medal drought for Team USA. 
“You can work your whole career and you just might not ever have the opportunity to play for a gold medal or you just might not have the opportunity to have that moment in that game,” Lamoureux-Morando said. “That was our third gold-medal game and neither of us had scored in the previous two, so to have moments like that is obviously very special for us.”
The 2018 gold came after the twins won silver in 2010 and 2014, falling to Canada in each final. That added more significance to the triumph at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018. 
“Without the U.S.-Canada rivalry, women’s hockey wouldn’t be where it’s at,” Lamoureux-Davidson said. “So to come up short the way we did in Sochi just makes it that much more special for us.”
For most fans, that rivalry truly started in 1998 when women’s hockey was included in the Olympic Winter Games for the first time. Team USA beat Canada in both the preliminary round and the gold-medal game in Nagano, moments the Lamoureux twins said inspired them to dream about playing in the Olympics for their country. 
“What the ’98 team did for us, hopefully our 2018 team does for the next generation,” Lamoureux-Morando said. 
Some of the twins’ most notable achievements came off the ice, when they were key leaders in the U.S. team’s boycott ahead of the 2017 world championships. The team ended up striking a new deal with USA Hockey for increased pay and improved travel arrangements, among other things — and then they went out and won another world title. Both were also instrumental in getting maternity leave included in their contract.
The sisters, now 33, have seen the women’s game progress on the ice as well, from the skill of the players evolving to the increased attendance at women’s games. Just last week, 14,551 fans attended a Rivalry Series game between Team USA and Canada in Seattle, breaking the attendance record for most fans at a women’s game in the U.S. 
“I think even in the last five years I’ve seen a huge jump in the depth of women’s hockey,” Lamoureux-Davidson said. “When we played (college hockey at North Dakota) you could win a lot of games with one line and one to two really good D and a goaltender and now it’s three lines deep.”
The significance of joining fellow American hockey legends in the Hall isn’t lost on either of them.  
“To know that we’re amongst players (in the Hall of Fame) that we’ve always looked up to is very humbling,” Lamoureux-Morando said. “To know how far the women’s game has come, the speed, the creativity, the skill, the strength, the shooting, it’s come so far just in our career but back in ’98 and before that and to see where it’s going to go is special to watch.”