Currently Browsing: Sports / Top Stories
USA Shocks Canada 5-3
Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy of Robert Gauthier, Los Angeles Times
.
Written by Bryan Rubin
Sunday night’s game against Team Canada brought back memories of USA Hockey in its glory days. In the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, Team USA defeated the Soviet Union who was at the time the greatest hockey team in the world. The Soviets demolished the NHL All-Stars and asserted their dominance over entire continents. From 1964 to 1992, Russia won 7 gold medals in hockey out of a possible 8. In this year’s Olympics in Vancouver, Team Canada reminds many people of the Soviets that dominated the sport internationally. With arguably the greatest team ever put together, Canada was the obvious favorite to win the gold medal in ice hockey. But after their loss to Team USA, people are starting to think otherwise.
Sidney Crosby, Patrick Marleau, Danny Heatley are just some of the superstars on Team Canada. In the NHL, the three have combined to score 112 goals. Patrick Kane, Phil Kessel, and Chris Drury are the faces for Team USA in these Olympics. However, they’ve combined for a mere 56 goals in the NHL, exactly half of Canada’s big three. And with Martin Brodeur, the all-time leader in shutouts and wins for NHL goalies, you would think Canada should have no problem conquering a gold medal. But after a 5-3 loss to USA, maybe it’s time to focus on the team in the red, white and blue.
Canada out shot the Americans 45-23 including 14-4 in the third period yet couldn’t solve the Ryan Miller puzzle. Miller, who plays goalie for the Buffalo Sabres, put on a show that has hockey fans raving across the US. So with the barrage of shots, how did the United States manage to come out victorious and shock the world?
The key to the game was the first goal and establishing momentum early. There is no better way to do this than scoring a goal 41 seconds into the game, which is exactly what Team USA’s oldest player, Brian Rafalski did. He fired a shot from the blue line that got past Brodeur to give the U.S an early lead. Eric Staal answered for the Canadians with a deflection from Brent Seabrook’s shot from the point. Yet USA came right back 22 seconds later when Rafalski once again beat Brodeur into the low corner to regain the lead for the Americans. The two teams exchanged goals after that and the U.S had a 3-2 lead after the second period thanks to USA Captain, Chris Drury’s goal.
In the third, Canada continued their onslaught and controlled the puck for the majority of the period in Team USA’s zone. Yet Ryan Miller made 13 saves in the period to keep USA in the game. Jamie Langenbrunner scored with 13 minutes left to give the U.S a 4-2 lead. However the game was far from over. Canada’s assistant Sidney Crosby cut the lead in half with a redirection through Miller’s pads and into the back of the net. As the clock ran under a minute left in the game, the stadium (filled with mostly Canada fans) were on their feet looking for the tying goal. USA’s Zack Parise single-handedly cleared the puck out of the zone with 40 seconds left and chipped the puck up the ice. In one of the most remarkable plays in USA Hockey history, Vancouver native, Ryan Kessler, dove at a Canadian defenseman who had the puck and with one hand whacked the puck into the net to seal the game 5-3.
It was said that this game was Canada’s Super Bowl and that 80 percent of the entire country watched this game. Canada is the place hockey was founded, and for the U.S to beat them on Canadian soil makes this victory all the merrier.
Email This Post
Print This Post
Leave a Reply