USA! USA! USA!

I am ashamed to admit that prior to tonight I didn’t understand how the scoring for men’s ice hockey worked. Let me enlighten you with my new found knowledge. There are 12 teams split up into 3 divisions of 4. Each team plays every team in their division. You get 3 points for a win, 2 points for an overtime win, 1 point for an overtime loss, and nothing for a loss. After the 4 games are done the teams are seeded into a traditional bracket with the top 4 teams receiving a first -round bye. If two teams are tied at the end of the prelims the tie breakers are head to head and then the amount of goals scored.

USA’s win tonight gave them a perfect 9 points. Sweeden and Finland each have 6 points and they play tomorrow, thus the winner of the game (assuming there is no overtime) would get 9 points. Finland would have to score 4 goals to tie USA and Sweeden would have to score 8. No other team can catch USA for the top spot. (Russia is also guaranteed one of the 4 seeded spots.) Canada’s loss was pretty devastating. Because they only won their last game via overtime, Canada falls to 6^th place and now will have to have a play in game to reach the quarter finals.

Anyway, let’s get to tonight’s game. Canada was the favorite to cruise to a gold medal. Their entire team is made up of NHL players (so is USA’s) and it has Sidney Crosby who is a scoring machine. So it was no surprise that Canada looked like the better team tonight: they outshot the Americans almost 2-1, and they passed better, they handled the puck better.

The American’s only won because their goal tending was simply amazing. The last 6 minutes of the game was like watching the Canadian’s shoot against a brick wall. It was the most exciting hockey I have ever seen. Shot after shot was deflected. The Canadians shot 14 shots to American’s 4 in the final period. Simply stated, the American Goalie Miller won the game.

I still think Canada is the team to beat this year, but tonight was a big win. USA was expected to be the 4^th best team, and it’s looking like it will be the #1 seed.