At only the age of 31, American team mainstays and identical twin sisters Jocelyne and Monique Lamoureux today announced their joint retirement, after an illustrious 14 year career with Team USA.
The Lamoureux twins first broke out professionally by joining the University of Minnesota in 2008, spending just one season with the Gophers before transferring to their hometown of Grand Forks, North Dakota, where they would spend their next four seasons with the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks. With Jocelyne serving as captain and Monique as assistant captain, they led the Hawks from obscurity to the WCHA finals in their final season, and both sisters were finalists for the Patty Kazmaier Award twice each. While Jocelyne spent her post-collegiate career as a conditioning coach with UND, Monique spent one season professionally with the Boston Blades of the CWHL in 2014-15, winning the Clarkson Cup. By virtue of the Clarkson Cup, Monique became just one of eight American women to join the Triple Gold Club, with a World Championship, Olympic and Clarkson Cup title.
The twins first joined Team USA’s senior team, ironically enough, at age 17 for the 2006 Four Nations Cup, joining the roster full-time in 2009. They would collectively play at three Olympics (2010-18), six World Championships (2009, 2011-13, 2015, 2017), and eight Four Nations Cups (2006, 2009-13, 2015-16) together, winning one Olympic Gold (2018) and two Silver (2010, 2014), five World Championship Gold (2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017) and one Silver (2012), and four Nations Cup Gold (2011, 2012, 2015, 2016), three Silver (2006, 2009, 2010) and one Bronze (2013) medals as a pair. Solo, Jocelyne would win an additional Four Nations Cup in 2008 and Worlds Gold in 2016, while Monique would win a solo Silver at the 2014 Four Nations Cup. In their final Team USA game, the 2018 Olympic Gold Medal final, the sisters would be the keys to Team USA’s first Olympic title in twenty years, with Monqiue scoring the game-tying goal in the third period, and Jocelyne scoring the infamous “Oops, I Did It Again” shootout winner. The duo would play 135 (Monique) and 137 (Jocelyne) games for Team USA respectively in their national team career, notching a staggering 143 and 138 points, respectively.
Together, the Lamoureux twins captured the IHLC fourteen times, first winning in their Gold Medal clincher at the 2009 Worlds, with their final title coming nine years later, capturing that elusive Olympic Gold title in PyeongChang. We wish Jocelyne, Monique and their families the very best for his retirement and the things to come!
International Hockey Lineal Championship 