| Authored by Nick Obergan - 22nd February, 2010 - 7:46 pm
 By now the dust will have settled on ?Super Sunday? at the Olympics. There were a lot of events all around Vancouver, but no place was as active and exciting as Canada Hockey Place (a.k.a. General Motors Place ? home of the Canucks) as viewers and fans around the world were treated to rematches of the last three gold medal games.
The afternoon game saw Russia battle Czech Republic in a rematch of the 1998 Gold Medal game, in which the Czechs were victorious. The teams battled closely for two periods, with the dynamic star power of Russia being held in check (pun not intended) and kept the opportunity of an upset on the minds of many.
However, the incredible defensive play of Pavel Datsyuk on Jaromir Jagr throughout the whole contest proved to be the difference, as the Czech star never got any free space to operate. And just to pour salt in Jagr?s wounds, he was on the receiving end of the best hit of the tournament when he was steamrolled by Alexander Ovechkin. I think Jagr has played this game long enough to know not to try and come up the middle with his head down, hasn?t he?
In the end, Russia pulled away in third as the Czech team looked to tire. Russia enters the quarterfinals as the 3rd seed and will play the winner of Canada/Germany, while the Czechs are the #5 seed and will play #12 seeded Latvia in a qualifying game for the right to play #4 Finland in the quarter finals.
The late game of the night was a rematch of the 2006 Gold Medal contest when Sweden beat Finland to capture gold. Sweden had to win the game by six goals to earn the #1 seed, but ?only? won 3-0, thus are the #2 seed after winning Pool C. Sweden showed once again why it is one of the favored teams to medal, blanking the Fins thanks largely to goalie Henrik Lundqvist.
Sweden will play the winner of #7 Slovakia and #10 Norway, while Finland still earns a buy and will play the winner of the Czech/Latvia game as listed above.
The game every hardcore hockey fan had on their minds, though, was Canada vs USA ? a rematch of 2002 in Salt Lake City when Canada beat the hosts. The USA exacted a little payback, winning 5-3 despite being doubled in shots and scoring opportunities. The difference in this game was between the pipes, as Ryan Miller stymied Team Canada, especially in a frantic third period.
Martin Brodeur, the big game goalie with a resume longer than my arm, was the sole reason for 2 of the 4 goals he allowed (the Americans? 5th goal was an empty net goal ? the best empty net goal I have ever witnessed; I am still in disbelief that it actually happened and am still wondering what Corey Perry was doing). For some reason, he thought he was a combination of Joe Mauer and a third defenseman, choosing to swing his stick like a bat on one of the goals, and then trying to make a sliding stab at the puck on another ? leaving himself completely out of position and his net completely empty unless you count Dan Boyle ? despite having two teammates approaching the puck, making for an easy open-net goal.
Canada played very physical (especially Rick Nash), and peppered Miller with 45 shots (their second straight game with 45 shots). But the USA defense were better than expected, forcing a lot of shots from outside of the danger zone, and Miller continued to be the best goalie of 2009-2010.
The win gave the Americans the top seed and a much lighter side of the bracket, facing the winner of the #8 Switzerland/#9 Belarus matchup.
Canada, on the other hand, gets bumped down to 6th with a loss and an overtime win (worth 2 points vs 3 for a regulation win), and will play Germany Tuesday for the right to face Russia. Thus, one of Canada or Russia will definitely not medal since they meet in the quarterfinals. In fact, that side of the bracket also has Sweden, and thus three of the top medal threats. Team USA?s top challengers will be Finland and Czech Republic ? while good teams, they are not the dangerous squads of Sweden, Russia or Canada.
To recap, Tuesday is the qualification round and will feature the following matchups: Belarus vs Switzerland ? 12pm PST/3pm EST; Germany vs Canada ? 4:30pm PST/7:30pm EST; Latvia vs Czech Republic ? 7pm PST/10pm EST; Norway vs Slovakia ? 9pm PST/Midnight EST. The winners then regroup quickly as Wednesday marks the start of the quarterfinals; Friday is the semifinals and Sunday is when the medal games are played.
Nick can be reached at nickobergan@hotmail.com or on twitter at @nickobergan |
