The U.S. men’s hockey team took to the ice to raucous approval in the 8,400-seat E Center on Friday, one week shy of the 22-year anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice” weekend.
That was the last time the Winter Games were held in the United States. And the last time the U.S. team grabbed any kind of Olympic medal.
We might have something going here. “It’s a special year,” center Doug Weight said. “We’re unbelievably lucky to be here to represent our country at this time. Everybody in the room feels that way.”
As in Lake Placid, the E Center featured hundreds of American flags and head-rattling chants of “U-S-A, U-S-A” as the Americans faced Finland.
That was the gold-medal game then. This was merely the first of three seeding-round games. Still, the verdict was similar, even if the big prize is still out there.
John LeClair notched a hat trick, surprise starting goalie Mike Dunham pitched a shutout, and the Americans finished the Finns 6-0.
The victory ties the United States with Russia in Pool A as the teams prepare to meet Saturday night. What’s more, the victory extended the Americans’ winning streak on U.S. ice to 20, dating to 1932.
Indeed, we might have something here.
“As the game progressed,” said LeClair, who managed one measly assist for Team USA in Nagano, Japan, in 1998, “we started to become more solid and execute a lot of the things we wanted to do.”
The first thing coach Herb Brooks wanted them to do was hang back defensively.
“His message to us was to start conservatively defensively, keep everyone in front of us,” said former Blackhawks defenseman Gary Suter, now with the San Jose Sharks. “If we played good defensively, we have all kinds of forwards who can score.”
The U.S. team has forwards on every line who can score. All four lines chipped in, with the other goals coming from Scott Young on a breakaway, Keith Tkachuk with a toe drag and roof shot, and Bill Guerin on a cross-ice feed from Hawks defenseman Phil Housley.
“We stuck to the game plan and were patient,” Housley said. “You have to remain patient. Hopefully this is a good step in the right direction.”
It might be a good step in identifying the starting goalie for the final round. Dunham, who plays for Nashville, was named to the team last summer but struggled early in the season, and it looked like Mike Richter of the New York Rangers or Tom Barrasso of Carolina, both veterans and both with Stanley Cups, would get the nod.
But Dunham came in with a 2.44 goals-against average in the NHL that was the best among the American goalies and a .909 save percentage that tied Richter.
“We just felt Dunham was on a roll more than the other two guys,” Brooks said.
The 6-3, 200-pound Dunham stopped 23 shots, including 11 in the third period, highlighted by stopping Tomi Kallio on a snap shot early and a Teemu Selanne rocket later.
Finland, the defending bronze medalists, gave up 39 shots and got whipped 41-18 on faceoffs.
“The numbers were pretty ugly,” Selanne said. “We can’t play sloppy with so many 50-goal scorers on their team.”
So, Saturday, it will be the United States vs. Russia for the inside track to the top seed in the medal round.
The game features a scenario in which Blackhawks teammates may be forced to smash each other–all in the name of national pride.
Russia’s Boris Mironov may find himself with an opportunity to absolutely crunch American Tony Amonte.
This is one of the quirks of having NHL players participate in the Olympics. One day you are teammates in Chicago, tied for the second-best record in the NHL, trying to nail down a playoff position for the first time in five years, working together to try to win a Stanley Cup.
The next day in Utah you are forced with a chance to obliterate a teammate.
“Of course it’s tough,” Mironov said. “But I think he’d probably do the same thing because he plays for his country, and that’s the biggest point.”
Indeed, Amonte said he’d expect Mironov to treat him like a garden-variety Red Wing.
“Why would I expect anything less from him?” Amonte said. “If I’m coming across the blue line with my head down, I would expect him to try to knock me off. And I’d do the same to him.
“And when the game’s over, I’d go down the hall and shake his hand, drink a beer with him. I wouldn’t smoke a cigarette, but he might.”
Four Hawks face this problem Saturday night: Amonte and defenseman Phil Housley for the Americans, and Mironov and center Alex Zhamnov for the Russians. Two other Hawks face a similar problem Sunday night when defenseman Jaroslav Spacek of the defending champion Czech Republic plays against center Michael Nylander of Sweden.
The game will be on U.S. ice. And Brooks will be behind the bench.
We might have something here, after all.
