The USA men's hockey team earned the top seed in the elimination round with a thrilling 5-3 victory over Canada last night. While going 3-0 in the preliminary round (joining Sweden as the only teams to accomplish that impressive feat), the USA played the style they needed to play: work hard and get great goaltending.
Now they're in a position to throw all predictions out the window and earn a gold medal. But before getting there, they'll need to face a daunting task: possible match-ups with Finland and either Russia or Sweden. The bracket is definitely in the American's favor. After an extra day off, they'll play the winner of tomorrow's Switzerland-Belarus game on Wednesday (3 p.m., NBC).
Then, if they win that game, the USA most likely will face a Finnish team that boasts Miikka Kiprusoff, Saku Koivu and the Finnish Flash, Teemu Selanne. A win there puts them in the gold medal game on Sunday afternoon.
As for the Canadians, they must play the Germans on Tuesday and then face Russia should they win. So the much-anticipated Alex Ovechkin-Sidney Crosby battle (Olympic edition) would take place Wednesday in the quarterfinals instead of Sunday in the gold medal match. How the mighty have fallen.
The USA women's team plays Sweden today with a likely match-up against Canada looming Thursday afternoon for all the marbles.
February 22, 2010
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