Perhaps the biggest question coming into Team USA’s last pool game at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics wasn’t whether their Slovenian opponents were going to be able to score enough goals to win but, rather, whether or not the Americans themselves would be completely switched on and ready to go.
After all, just a day earlier, they had fought their way to a gritty 3-2 triumph over host nation Russia in perhaps the most important game of the tournament to that point, and the team, many of whom had previously been anonymous in the eyes of most of the American public, were being celebrated and lauded from all corners of the United States.
Shootout hero T.J. Oshie, yet another talented player from the Hockey Factory of Roseau, Minnesota, has received Tweets from President Obama, has gained thousands of new followers, was featured on ESPN’s SportsCenter and is the guy on most Americans’ lips after converting on four of six chances against Russian goalie Sergei Bobrovsky to lead Team USA to a famous victory.
Less than ninety seconds into the game, our questions were answered – and it was business as usual for the Americans when Toronto Maple Leafs star Phil Kessel slammed home the first goal, and followed it quickly with a second, and a third in the second period, for the first natural hat trick (three goals in succession, with no one else scoring in between) by an American Olympian since John LeClair on home ice in Salt Lake City.
The Kessel family is having quite a tournament. Phil has seven points (4 goals and 3 assists) and his sister, Amanda, a standout at the University of Minnesota, will take the ice for Team USA in a semi-final against Sweden with four points (2 goals and 2 assists) as the women look to progress to another Gold Medal Game. Phil’s natural hat trick was the second of the tournament, after Canada’s Jeff Carter.
It was a case of fast starting for the Americans in all three periods. They came out, scored quickly and didn’t give the Slovenians a chance to really settle themselves at all. It was free-flowing hockey from the Americans, making good use of the large ice surface and a less-talented Slovenian defense as compared to the Russians, who were at times brilliant in stifling American attack.
Not so for the Slovenians. New York Ranger Ryan McDonagh became the first man on the ice not called Phil Kessel to score a goal, capitalising on a great feed from Blake Wheeler only 1:12 into the second. Hero of the Russian game, T.J. Oshie, scored the second assist. And it was Oshie’s team-mate in St Louis, David Backes, whose physicality against the host nation was so ferocious a night before, who ended American scoring at the Shayba Arena early in the third, his strike coming with just 3:26 gone.
Interestingly, coming off of the high-pressure, tournament-shaking win against Russia, Team USA head coach Dan Bylsma decided to rest goalie/hero Jonathan Quick. The Los Angeles Kings net-minder was a healthy scratch just twenty-four hours after stoning the Russians, and net duty fell to Ryan Miller, the 2010 hero, and something of a forgotten man these Olympics. After all, the Buffalo Sabres goalie was most people’s pick to start in goals, but Bylsma chose Quick and the rest, as they say, is history.
Even so, Miller had this last pool game to shine, and was nearly perfect on the night, surrendering the lone goal with just eighteen seconds left after seventeen saves. Regardless, Miller earned the win, and is now tied with 1980 Miracle on Ice goalie Jim Craig with six Olympic victories in the stars and stripes. He’s just one behind Jack McCartan, who backstopped the Americans to Gold at Squaw Valley in 1960.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to see Miller getting another start this tournament – unless Quick has an epic meltdown between the pipes – and he’s probably going to be too old in four years’ time, so the man who set Olympic hockey alight four years ago in Vancouver will likely be stranded next to Craig and behind McCartan. It seems like Miller will forever carry the dubious distinction of being the only goalie in the Top 3 who hasn’t won a Gold medal.
So, the Americans roll on, and courtesy of not losing a game will earn a bye through to the quarterfinals – they will not finish first overall, as the shootout win against Russia meant that they did not score the maximum available points – and likely stare down a semi-final match-up against their 2010 nemeses’ Sidney Crosby and the Canadians inside the Bolshoy Ice Dome.
The men’s tournament is heating up – bring it on!
No comments:
Post a Comment