Brendan Mikkelson on sister's gold medal.

While he was practicing in Anaheim, Brendan Mikkelson's sister picked up a gold medal in Vancouver.

Meaghan Mikkelson is a defenseman on the Canadian women's national team that beat the U.S. 2-0 for the gold medal on Thursday.

"She was really excited," Brendan said Monday. "I was really excited for her. She put in four years of work. It's a lot of work she put in."

Meghan, two years Brendan's senior and also a Saskatchewan native, played for four years at the University of Wisconsin.

Brendan Mikkelson believes the national pressure on the women's team was just as great, if not greater, than it was on the men's.

"There's a lot more parity in the men's game," he said. "The women's game has come a long way the last 10, 15 years, but it's still not as far as the parity goes. There's six or seven teams on the men's side that could have won it all. On the women's side, Sweden had a pretty solid goalie. They're coming along. Finland's getting a lot better. I don't want to say anything bad about the other countries, but they're a ways behind. There's almost more pressure there because there is less competition.

"They almost have a gun to their head. The men's team did, too, but ... that's the best way to put it: win or nothing."