Louis Acosta (Getty Images)- Ryan Kesler celebrates empty net goal to seal the win for the United States.American's Upset Canada
On paper, it was just the final game of play in Pool A in the preliminary round of this Olympic tournament. But for the United States and Canada it was more than just a game. This was Canada’s version of the Super Bowl and the young stars of the United States were primed to repeat the performance of Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints as they shocked the Canadians, winning 5-3 in front of 19,100 of their hometown fans at the Canada Hockey Place.
Jamie Langenbrunner was credited with the game-winning goal, but it was Ryan Kesler’s dash up the ice for an empty netter that turned out to be the biggest goal of the game. Sure, Brian Rafalski had two goals and an assist and Ryan Miller had a spectacular game between the pipes, but Kesler’s tally halted all of Canada’s momentum after they cut the deficit to one with Sidney Crosby’s power play goal.
With just over three minutes to play in regulation, Rick Nash found Crosby skating hard towards the net and he dished the puck onto his stick and it deflected into the goal under a sprawling Ryan Miller to cut the American’s lead to 4-3. Soon thereafter, with the hometown Canadian fans going crazy, Canada started teeing off on Ryan Miller as Team USA looked helpless, unable to get the puck out their own defensive end. As the shots ricocheted all around him, Miller maintained his composure and Canadian goal tender Martin Brodeur raced to the bench to get an extra attacker on the ice.
"It seemed like they had eight or nine guys out there to our five,” said Chris Drury, Team USA’s veteran winger. “We hung tight and, obviously, 'Millsie' made some huge saves. I'm glad we were able to get it out of the zone and be able to change."
Despite the man advantage, Canada still couldn’t get a shot past Miller when Ryan Kesler finally got the puck out to Zach Parise over the blue line. Parise dumped it down the ice and Canadian forward Corey Perry gave chase but Kesler was hot on his tail. The Vancouver Canuck then dove around Perry and took a backhanded shot into the empty net to ice the game and restore Team USA’s two-goal lead at 19:16.
Martin Brodeur, who clearly did not play his best game, made 18 saves for Canada and his four goals against were all scored by familiar faces. His former teammate with the New Jersey Devils Brian Rafalski, scored twice, his first one just forty-one seconds into the game while his current Devils teammate and Team USA captain Jamie Langenbrunner, put one past him in the third period. Chris Drury, his nemesis from the New York Rangers, also scored in the second to break a 2-2 tie.
“It definitely wasn’t a great game for communication with our ‘D’ and myself,” Brodeur acknowledged.
Brodeur’s counterpart, however, was outstanding tonight. Ryan Miller played one of the best games of his career, standing on his head to make impressive saves against the awesome firepower that the Canadians possessed. Miller was a fine example of how a hot goalie can steal a game in such a short tournament. In the third period, he made a sprawling save on Crosby and stopped a Rick Nash slap shot from the left face-off circle which was rebounded onto the stick of Jerome Iginla. Iginla launched a shot from the slot, which Miller held on to.
“My job was to stay consistent and keep it simple,” said Miller. “We’re happy to get an extra day to rest up.”
The first of the 36 year old Rafalski’s two goals came forty-one seconds into the game when he winded up a slap shot and was able to get a deflection into the net off of Sidney Crosby’s skate. His second goal came at 9:15 of the first period when Brodeur took a baseball swing in an attempt to clear the puck out of his zone. Rafalski skated up and launched the puck and rifled the puck at Brodeur while Jamie Langenbrunner provided an effective screen in front. Rafalski also factored in Langenbrunner’s goal at 8:09 of the third period when his slap shot from the left circle was off of Langenbrunner’s skate for what looked like his hat trick goal.
“Obviously, that’s a good start for us,” said Rafalski. “It put a lot more pressure on them and they had to expend a lot of energy. They outshot us for the period. But when they tied it up we responded and were able to get ahead again.”
Eric Staal and Dany Heatley scored the other goals for the Canadians. Both goals tied the game but a tie score was the closest the Canadians got to the young Americans. Said Sidney Crosby, “It's a tough loss. We played hard, got some bad breaks early on there and that was maybe the difference. I thought we played pretty desperate and made a lot of things happen, but unfortunately we didn't get the breaks.”
Jamie Langenbrunner was credited with the game-winning goal, but it was Ryan Kesler’s dash up the ice for an empty netter that turned out to be the biggest goal of the game. Sure, Brian Rafalski had two goals and an assist and Ryan Miller had a spectacular game between the pipes, but Kesler’s tally halted all of Canada’s momentum after they cut the deficit to one with Sidney Crosby’s power play goal.
With just over three minutes to play in regulation, Rick Nash found Crosby skating hard towards the net and he dished the puck onto his stick and it deflected into the goal under a sprawling Ryan Miller to cut the American’s lead to 4-3. Soon thereafter, with the hometown Canadian fans going crazy, Canada started teeing off on Ryan Miller as Team USA looked helpless, unable to get the puck out their own defensive end. As the shots ricocheted all around him, Miller maintained his composure and Canadian goal tender Martin Brodeur raced to the bench to get an extra attacker on the ice.
"It seemed like they had eight or nine guys out there to our five,” said Chris Drury, Team USA’s veteran winger. “We hung tight and, obviously, 'Millsie' made some huge saves. I'm glad we were able to get it out of the zone and be able to change."
Despite the man advantage, Canada still couldn’t get a shot past Miller when Ryan Kesler finally got the puck out to Zach Parise over the blue line. Parise dumped it down the ice and Canadian forward Corey Perry gave chase but Kesler was hot on his tail. The Vancouver Canuck then dove around Perry and took a backhanded shot into the empty net to ice the game and restore Team USA’s two-goal lead at 19:16.
Martin Brodeur, who clearly did not play his best game, made 18 saves for Canada and his four goals against were all scored by familiar faces. His former teammate with the New Jersey Devils Brian Rafalski, scored twice, his first one just forty-one seconds into the game while his current Devils teammate and Team USA captain Jamie Langenbrunner, put one past him in the third period. Chris Drury, his nemesis from the New York Rangers, also scored in the second to break a 2-2 tie.
“It definitely wasn’t a great game for communication with our ‘D’ and myself,” Brodeur acknowledged.
Brodeur’s counterpart, however, was outstanding tonight. Ryan Miller played one of the best games of his career, standing on his head to make impressive saves against the awesome firepower that the Canadians possessed. Miller was a fine example of how a hot goalie can steal a game in such a short tournament. In the third period, he made a sprawling save on Crosby and stopped a Rick Nash slap shot from the left face-off circle which was rebounded onto the stick of Jerome Iginla. Iginla launched a shot from the slot, which Miller held on to.
“My job was to stay consistent and keep it simple,” said Miller. “We’re happy to get an extra day to rest up.”
The first of the 36 year old Rafalski’s two goals came forty-one seconds into the game when he winded up a slap shot and was able to get a deflection into the net off of Sidney Crosby’s skate. His second goal came at 9:15 of the first period when Brodeur took a baseball swing in an attempt to clear the puck out of his zone. Rafalski skated up and launched the puck and rifled the puck at Brodeur while Jamie Langenbrunner provided an effective screen in front. Rafalski also factored in Langenbrunner’s goal at 8:09 of the third period when his slap shot from the left circle was off of Langenbrunner’s skate for what looked like his hat trick goal.
“Obviously, that’s a good start for us,” said Rafalski. “It put a lot more pressure on them and they had to expend a lot of energy. They outshot us for the period. But when they tied it up we responded and were able to get ahead again.”
Eric Staal and Dany Heatley scored the other goals for the Canadians. Both goals tied the game but a tie score was the closest the Canadians got to the young Americans. Said Sidney Crosby, “It's a tough loss. We played hard, got some bad breaks early on there and that was maybe the difference. I thought we played pretty desperate and made a lot of things happen, but unfortunately we didn't get the breaks.”
With the hard nosed veterans leading the young American team to victory, the United States takes the top seed in the playoff round, which earns them a bye into Wednesday’s quarterfinal match up against the winner of the Switzerland-Belarus game. Canada’s next opponent is Germany in a winner take all game on Tuesday evening in which the prize is a date with the explosive Russian team.
Said Crosby, “Its probably not where we wanted to come in, but that’s where we are now.”
“We’re going to have to (put this game behind us),” said Brodeur. “We’re going to have an extra game now to get to know each other better and start playing. (Ryan) Miller was the big difference.”
Slap Shots…The time has come for Canada to go back to Luongo in net. Although he is one of the greatest net minders to ever play the game of hockey, Marty hasn’t really cut the mustard these last two games. His ill-advised baseball swing not withstanding, Marty almost lost to a Switzerland team that Canada should have easily beaten. Although he made great saves tonight, he looked a little shaky in the net and didn’t seem to have enough confidence in his D-men. Time to go back to Luongo against Germany…..Celebrity sightings: Michael Phelps, Bonnie Blair, Brendan Shanahan, Seth Rogen and Donald Sutherland were on hand to witness the upset…..Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner was even in attendance. I hope he saw first hand how important it is to have the NHL participate in the Olympics. Not only is this ten times better than any all-star weekend, but casual sports fans, even the people who don’t watch hockey during the regular season, are tuning into this Olympic tournament…..Which brings me to another point: Why was this game not shown in primetime on NBC? I understand NBC showed the Russia-Czech game at noon but this game was certain to be a huge ratings draw and I’m surprised they didn’t air this in primetime. And if the suits at the Peacock didn’t think there would be enough interest, just log on to Facebook and read everyone’s status…..My three stars of the game: 1- Brian Rafalski, 2- Ryan Miller, 3- Jamie Langenbrunner. Honorable mention: Chris Drury.
Russia cashes Czechs, Earns First Round Bye
First Alexander Ovechkin obliterated Jaromir Jagr. Then the Russians finished off their Czech rivals 4-2 yesterday afternoon, winning their pool and earning an automatic bye to the quarterfinal round. After the crushing hit on Jagr, which jarred the puck loose, Russian defenseman and ex-teammate of Jagr’s, Fedor Tyutin, fed the puck to Alexander Semin who dished it over to Evgeni Malkin who took a shot from his knees to give the Russians a 3-1 edge for his second goal of the game.According to NHL.com, nobody is a greater admirer of Ovechkin's than Jagr, who dubbed the young superstar the game's best player soon after the NHL returned from its work stoppage in 2005-06 with rookies Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby playing starring roles.
"Of course I saw him," Jagr said afterward. "I wanted to make a play. It was just a bad turnover – a bad mistake. The hit doesn't hurt. The mistake hurts because they scored a goal on that play. It's a bad feeling. But I have to come back."
Said Ovechkin of the hit, "I respect everybody, but on the ice you don't have friends, you don't have nobody, only your teammates. You play right now for your country and it doesn't matter who you play against."
Milan Michalek scored with 5:09 left in the game to bring the Czech’s within one goal at 3-2. Pavel Datsyuk scored an empty netter at 19:48 to clinch the game for the Russians. Besides the hit on Jagr, Ovechkin also notched two assists and made SportsCenter type moves with the puck all afternoon. Russia will get an extra day to rest while the Czech Republic faces Latvia on Tuesday.
Swedes Down Finland in Rematch, Take Second Seed
Henrik Lundqvist continued his goaltending brilliance last night as he kept Finland off the score sheet with a 3-0 victory in a rematch of the 2006 gold medal game in Turin. Lundqvist stopped all of Finland’s 20 shots. Loui Eriksson scored twice on the power play and Nicklas Backstorm added a goal to power the defending gold medalists to victory."Yeah, we're happy with the first three games, but on Wednesday (in the quarterfinals) it doesn't really matter. You have to start over," Lundqvist told NHL.com. "Your mindset has to be: 'The first five minutes.' And you just have to be so solid, you can't really afford to take too many penalties or make many mistakes."We feel good. We should feel good. At the same time, on Wednesday, it's just down to one game. It doesn't matter what you've done in the past."
Quotes taken from NHL.com, NBCOlympics.com, and the New York Daily News.
Tuesday’s Games
#8 Switzerland vs. #9 Belarus 3 p.m. EST (Winner takes on #1 USA)#6 Canada vs. #11 Germany 7:30 p.m. EST (Winner takes on #3 Russia)
#5 Czech Republic vs #12 Latvia 10 p.m. EST (Winner takes on #4 Finland)
#7 Slovakia vs #10 Norway Midnight EST (Winner takes on #2 Sweden)
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