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Show The Salt Lake Tribune Y NFPA Tuesday, February19, 2002 INT E ee R MEN'S HOCKEY OLYMPICS Frank Curreri Enjoy Those Lop Sided Snoozers heneverthe U.S. V V teamcompetes at these Olympics, I suddenly feel I would bebetter off watching a race between Carl Lewis and a one-legged turtle inits prime. At leastthe sprinting matchupmight show Lewis, say, taunting the turtleat the finish line. But the top-rankedterrors onice, the defending Olympic champions and winners of 34 straightcontests, ducefar less drama. Wa being poisoned by overco! dence,a 5-0 win for theU.S. womenis not considereda blow-out. It's a nail-biter. USS.goalie Sara DeCosta recently shared how hum- bling such landslide victories can be when she described last week's 5-0 spanking of Finland. The Finns challenged the stubborn net-stopper with 21 shots, prompting DeCosta to say afterward that the game “gota little crazy.” Danny La/‘TheSalt Lake Tribune Russia’s Boris Mironov,right, smacks the head Finland’s Juha Lind with his stick in the third period of Monday's game.Finland won 3-1. Fiery Finns Slightly more sane, perhaps, were the two prior Olympic games against hockey doormats Germany and China, wherethe U.S. womentriumphed by a com- bined 22-1 margin Which begsthequesti Are theother teamsplay These becomestraight faced queries when you con sider that the Americans haveoutscored their opponents 288-29 duringtheir 34- matchwinstreak.Infact, I Road te HockeyGold Selanneignites TheWEDNESDAY Finland offense against Russia BYPHIL MILLER Finland THESALT LAKETRIBUNE | 8:15 p.m. witz, a high-schooler, to take the gameandrevealthat theselop-sidedaffairs some- times inducesareaction other than yawning. The PROVO The best that could be said about Finland's Olympic showing through the first 30 minutes of Mond as: At least they had a wof the tournament. mostentertaining part is seeing feisty females dish out heavydoses of hustling and hitting androutinely smash: ing each otherintothe boardsandto theice. fm convinced someof them could even swallow part of the puckandactually relish thetaste. But another thing struck me aboutthese insatiable dominators:Virtually none of them sports the “missing front teeth” look that has becomefamously fashionable among male hockey player ive U.S. head coach Ben Smith a lot of credit. Not only do his play. ers have great smiles, but the Harvard graduatehas also led their seamlesstransformation from DavidtoGoliath over the past four years. One time,aftera 4-3loss to the Canadiansfor the world championship in 1997, the , unimpressed by their rout of Belarus, the Finns were “too respectful of our opponents agai Monday It's anybody's guess how priorto today’ goal:fest against Sweden, and allowed 70 yes shots on goal. But hereare some motivational sugges: tions for Smith shouldhis team be clinging to a mere 11-0 lead lateintothethird period: Implore the U.S. slackers at the top of your lungs, “You got to want it!” Or: “Wegonna quit sleep- walking through this one or defenseman Kimmo Timonen. “Weacted like they're such a goodteam, weshouldn't be out there, we shouldjust be stand ing and watching them.” Finland finally decided it belonged on the ice when TeemuSelanneof the San Jose Sharks scored on a breakaway through the second period, and the suddenly energized Finns added t goals to surprise Russ the PeaksIce Arena. The victory pairs Fi with Canada in Wednesday's quarterfinals, a rematch of the If Sweden narrowsthe from the refs. And,if all else fails, invoke the mosteffective motivational ploy of all time: ‘Tell them you overheard Swedish players busting “Yo" mama” jokes about your players. | know I'd beall ears to hear it. Even if my eyes were wide shut Scurreri@sltrib.com sian forward Alexei Kovalev, a Pittsburgh Penguin. “Welearn by mistakes. We made some mistakes and hope it will help for the next game.” Finland, on the cther hand, Eas E Center Canada Czech Republic 1:30 p.m Peaks SATURDAY 12:15 p.m. E Center Russia pew Germany 15 p.m " Cemer 1998 bronze-medal game won “Maybe the Russians are thinking about the next the defending Olympic champion Czech Republic, are on a that the game was only to determine seeding for the round,” said Selanne, noting potential course to meet Team quarterfinals. “We wanted this USA inthe semifinals Friday the 22nd anniversary of their “Miracleon Ice”epic. win more than those guys.” Probably so, and consider- future, and nobody was contemplating them Monday. Right? TheFinnswere notsosure. outskated, outscored and outshot (11-2) in the first period, ing that the Russians dominated the first period and had several good scoring chances, nobody on the losing side seemed believably worried. “Weare just trying to improve the puck and fires it up ice, there is no defense to intercede between Selanne and goalie Nikolai Khabibulin. A quick fi of the stick puts the puck over Khabibuiin’s shoulder and gives Finland its first goal. PLAYER OF THE GAME Embarrassed by his 6-0 loss to Team USA, Finnish goalie Jani Hurme bounces back by shutting out Russia for the final 52 minutes. their crisis of confidence was growing serious. “The U.S. game was so humiliating. Everyonein the locker room is 2S Center Steve Baker/TheSalt Lake Tribun’ USA But those games are in the USAin a 6-0 beating last week. The Finnsbadly needed a healing victory, and after being a professional, and we were embarrassed by our perfor- 2 4 m. S by the Finns, 3-2. Meanwhile, the Russians, who next face still was wincing from the psychic scars inflicted by Team GOAL OF THE GAME Four Russians are along the north wall and Teemu Selanne is alone on the south. So when Ossi Vaananen corrals mance,” said Ottawa Senator Sami Salo. “Then in thefirst period wedidn’t play well, and youstart to think, ‘Whynot?’ “ In the locker room between periods, Selanne told his teammates, “Those guyswill kill us if we keep playing like that. Six minutes later, Mikko Eloranta converted a two-ontwo rush. by scoring untouched from the left. And Jere Lehtinen added the clinching goal 33 seconds into the third period. With Jani Hurme bouncing back to stop 25 of Russia’s 26 shots, it was enough. “Howwe played in the second andthird period,that’s how we can play,” Timonen Let’s play our style.” Thatstyle included catching the Russians on line change, said. “That’s how we must play in the next game.” “We were unsure how we with Selanne all alone steam- are as a team,so this is good ing for the goal. Ossi Vaananen launched a long pass to Selanne, who faked Russian goalie Nikolai Khabibulin and flipped the puck overhis right shoulder. for our self-confidence,” said Finnish coach Hannu Aravirta. “The curve is pointing upward, that’s the important ‘Underdog’ Sweden HasBest Offense, Power Play, Goalkeeper BYPHIL MILLER ‘THE SALT LAKETRIBUNE, PROVO Except for the best offense, the best extremely difficult, so we're notthe favorites.” No, of course not. What a nutty thought. Just because Mats Sundin, the tournament's leading scorer with seven points, can play hide-and-seek d the best goalkeeper in the Winter with the German defense all night and score a goal weden has nothing goingforit. ‘The Swedes blasted through Germany7-1 at the Peaks on Monday and completed round-robin play as the Olympictournament's only 3-0 team. Yet con: fronted by their ownsizzling play and the notion that they have quietly becomegold-medal favorites, every three chances, including two more goals against Germany, whosays thatwill be important in deflecting faster than Tommy “Favorites? We're underdogs,” insisted a horri. and two assists, well, what value is that? Just because he leads a power play that converts one of the elimination round? Just because the Swedes, with their seeding cemented and no reason to play all-out against Germany, still displayed a wide varietyofscoring styles — Daniel son's one-timer from the point, for instance, or Markus Naslund’s night off and, naturally, matchedhis brilliance with a shutout until the final two minutes. “You know fied Johan Hedberg, who gaveSalo a well-deserved breakaway backhand flip from close in — why would anyonebe impressed bythat? Funny thing, though. Germany was. “My team Canadaand the Czechs and the U.S. are going to be has seen howee the top teams play. They have experienced what technical ability can do,” said coach Hans Zach. ‘The Germansw eeee soaltender Olaf Kolzig, the Washington goals Mies wuce ts too bore ts eg an OR pies. But after hanging with Canadain a 3-2 loss Sunday, they had reason for optimism against Sweden. It lasted about 4% minutes, or until a wide-open Naslund took a et pass on the right eae and sailed a power-play goal Christian Ki Ninety seconds later, Sundin scored. Three qui later, Mikael Renberg stuffed in a rebound. You get the picture. Only the Swedes seemed unimpressed. “We're just trying to move the puck and keep skating. It’s only a start,” Sundin said. “When quarterfinals start, this won't mean a wholelot.” pmiller@s|ltrib. com WOMEN’S HOCKEY Heavily Favored USA Readyfor Its Shot at Olympic Glory what? You'vegotta’ believe!” lead to11-1, instantly call a timeout and demand a replay “ against Russia, according to mastermotivator madehis team stand outsideof the Canadians’locker room and suffer their cheers andparty. ing. The U.S. went on to win the 1998 Olympic gold medal, bumping Canada as the world’s hockey superpower. important games,” said Rus- Noon star forward Natalie Dar- she’s really Jeremy Roenick. Still, staying tuned to knows that there are more FRIDAY keepwaiting for emerging off her helmetat the end of our game because everybody GOLD MEDAL with sticks, too? Do they have coaches? BYPHIL MILLER prohibitive gold medal favor- THESALT LAKE TRIBUNE ( CITY im USA’s wom: mifinal against Sweden at 4:30 today? Better not get hung upin the ter security lines, becaus s game figures to be over by around4:35. The Americans can advance to Thursday's gold medal game by beating the Swedes, and since the \ ites outscored their semifinal opponent 40-3 in a four-game exhibition tour in December,it would take roughly a dozen broken legs, a stomach-flu epi: demic and a whole squad of French judges to deny Team USA its shot at Olympic glory. ‘The Swedes, a young team that camein withouta victory this winter over an international team, have produced the only real surprise of the women’s tournament, a 3-2 victory over Russia that earned them this shot. But the Americans, 340 since forming in August, have a big edge in talent and experience. And if that’s not enough, they plan to approach the medal round with the ruthlessness of Tony Soprano. “If anything, you'll see our focus get even more intense,” said U.S. defenseman A.J. Mleczko. “We've prepared too long for these next two games to take any a Team only slightly ear theavilyaiaet a against Finland in the other semi seven-time world champions routed the Finns twice, 7-2 and 5-2, to win the Three Nations Cup in Finland last November, so they are familiar with their opponent’sstyle, Question is, can Finland score? Despite giving the Americans their first real challand was shut out by U.S. goalt: ender Sara DeCosta, 50. Now 4 Today's Games |