2014 Sochi Olympics

SOCHI—Phil Kessel scored three goals and Ryan Miller shut out Slovenia for 59 minutes on Sunday to lead the USA to a 5-1 win over Slovenia to wrap up round-robin play.Kessel got going right away as the Americans showed little early sign of a hangover after the big win over Russia on Saturday. On his first shift, Kessel made a brilliant move to open the scoring just 1:04 into the game. He would add a second goal a couple of minutes later when he batted a Joe Pavelski pass out of the air for a quick 2-0 lead.The score would stay that way as Slovenia carried play for most of the remainder of the first period and into the early second. But then the USA had a monster offensive shift that resulted in a third goal for Kessel, the first hat trick by an American at the Olympics since 2002.It wasn’t long after Kessel’s third goal that defenseman Ryan McDonagh made the score 4-0 when he finished a tremendous pass from Blake Wheeler and at that point, the rout was on.David Backes made the score 5-0 early in the third period when a pass from Ryan Callahan deflected off a defenseman’s skate then Backes’ skate before he was able to tap the puck in with his stick for the 5-0 lead. The USA remained in control from the remainder of the third period.Miller got the start in place of Jonathan Quick on Sunday, who got the day off completely as he was scratched to rest, and was solid for the US. With Slovenia playing well in the first part of the game, Miller was tasked with making some good saves and he did. He was just 18 seconds away from recording the shutout when Marcel Rodman was able to sneak a bullet of a shot past Miller to break up the blanking bid.Now the United States finishes the round-robin play with a 2-1-0-0 mark for eight points and the top spot. The USA moves on to the quarterfinals with a bye as the group winner. They are the second seed.
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In a game where goals were hard to come by, defenseman Drew Doughty found the back of the net twice for Canada, including the overtime game-winner. The Canadians clinched the top spot in Group B and earned the No. 3 overall seed with a 2-1 win over Finland in what was a tight-checking, slow-paced game.Finland was content to sit back and do all they could to slow down Canada’s attack that includes many of the game’s best forwards. The strategy was a success as the defense and netminder Tuukka Rask held Canada at bay for much of the contest.Doughty struck midway through the first period with a power-play marker. The LA Kings rearguard set himself up in the left faceoff circle and wired a perfect wrist shot over Rask’s right shoulder and just underneath the bar.From then on, the game was a bit sluggish with Finland collapsing to the middle in their own end, forcing Canada to work for every inch they got in the Finnish zone.A late second-period goal off a between-the-legs tip by Tuomo Ruutu past Carey Price tied up the game and that’s the way it stayed through a slightly more open third period.In overtime Finland’s best chance came off a point shot from Sami Salo that Price just got with his blocker. Shortly after, Canada rushed up the ice with Jeff Carter finding Kings teammate Doughty on the left side.Doughty’s shot just snuck under Rask, between his legs and over the line to give Canada the win.This now sets up Canada to play the winner of the qualification round game between Latvia and Switzerland. Meanwhile, the Finns will take on the winners of Russia-Norway.With Canada and Finland finishing in overtime and only earning two points, Sweden was the only team to finish with a perfect record, with all three wins coming in regulation. The Swedes have the top spot, while the U.S. is second overall.