2014 Sochi Olympics SOCHI—The United States is on to the semifinals at the Olympics after defeating the Czech Republic 5-2 on Wednesday.The Americans got the scoring started early in the first period when James van Riemsdyk scored from in close on what can only be described as a soft goal against Czech starter Ondrej Pavelec. But the Czechs responded and put a lot of pressure on the Americans, evening the game at 1-1 three minutes later on Ales Hemsky’s goal. The puck was in the crease and Ryan McDonagh had the clear but when he tried to move the puck out it hit the skate of Ryan Suter and went into the American net.The American line of Dustin Brown, David Backes and Ryan Callahan then took over for the remainder of the first period, combining on a pair of goals. The first was a great cross-crease pass from Backes to Brown, who scored on the short angle. Then, with less than two seconds in the period, Backes hopped on a shot from Suter that went wide and put the puck past Pavelec on another tough goal to give the USA a 3-1 lead at the intermission, a crushing goal.Dan Bylsma’s team kept the pressure up to start the second period and got another goal, this one from Zach Parise when once again a shot from Suter went off the end boards and hopped back in the crease. After that goal Pavelec was pulled from the game after four goals on 12 shots, giving way to Alexander Salak. The Americans added the fifth goal in the third period when Phil Kessel added his fifth of these Games, giving the USA a 5-1 lead.Hemsky did add a second late tally for the Czechs but it was too little, too late as the Americans went on to win 5-2 in somewhat comfortable fashion.Quick stopped 21 of the 23 shots he faced and was all-around solid to good for the USA as the Czechs did get some pretty good chances throughout the game. The defense in front of him was doing a good job of limiting those chances though by jamming the crease or blocking shots before they reached Quick.Next up is a rematch of the 2010 gold-medal game against Canada, which snuck past Latvia in a game played right across the lot at the same time. —————————————————————————————————-
Canada survived the ultimate scare of their Olympics on Wednesday, getting a third-period power-play goal from Shea Weber to defeat the pesky Latvians by a final score of 2-1, setting up a semifinal matchup with the USA.From start to finish, Canada was in complete control of the game but there was one problem; they couldn’t get the puck past Latvian goalie Kristers Gudlevskis. The Canadians did get a goal early in the first period from the Blackhawks Patrick Sharp but that was all they would get for a while as their relentless assault on the Latvian defense was fruitless.Left to do little but try to counter-attack, Latvia was able to draw even before the close of the third period. With less than five minutes in the opening period, Lauris Darzins was sprung on a breakaway and he made a great deke to get Carey Price down to the ice before finishing with the backhand. That was just the start of the frustrations for Canada.In the second period Canada outshot Latvia 19-5 but the game remained even at one. Between shots hitting the post and Gudlevskis, they couldn’t break through, causing a small bit of consternation in Canada.
“I’m sure it was tense,” Sidney Crosby said after the game. “People would have been yelling at their TVs.”
The story was much the same in the third period as Canada kept coming and Gudlevskis kept stopping. It wasn’t until Canada’s 52nd shot of the game that they were able to get ahead of Latvia for good. With just a couple of seconds left on the power play, Shea Weber used his patented bomb from the blue line to beat Gudlevskis and give Canada a 2-1 lead with less than seven minutes to play. It was a bitter end to an otherwise sweet day for Gudlevskis.
“That was one of the best goaltending performances I’ve ever seen,” his counterpart Price said.
Latvia tried in the closing minutes to get some pressure on Canada but couldn’t do much to test Price, getting just a couple of good looks. They gave it all they had and pushed Canada to the brink but the talent disparity was evident and they just didn’t have enough to counter Canada’s late goal.Now Canada draws the United States in the semifinals, a rematch of the gold-medal game in 2010 that Canada won in overtime. It will be the latest installment of what has become a great hockey rivalry.
With USA and Canada meeting on Thursday in the women’s gold-medal game, it’s going to be a fun 48 hours in North America.
“This is what it’s all about. Canada-USA,” Jonathan Toews said afterward. “It’s becoming an even bigger rivalry than CAN-Russia. It doesn’t get any better than that.”