U.S. Men Will Play For Hockey Gold Medal After 6-1 Win

Posted by Ralph Routon

Swarming and attacking as much as at any time during the Winter Olympics men’s hockey tournament, Team USA struck for an amazing six goals in the first 12:46 of play and cruised thereafter en route to a stunningly easy 6-1 victory against Finland in the first semifinal of the day, meaning the Americans will be playing for the gold medal on Sunday afternoon.

Paul Stastny

Ryan Malone began the assault on Finn goaltender Mikka Kiprusoff just 2:04 into the game that almost every hockey observer expected to be low-scoring. Zach Parise struck next with a power-play goal at 6:23, then Erik Johnson’s rebound goal at 8:36 clearly shocked Kiprusoff, who plays for the Calgary Flames of the National Hockey League.

Patrick Kane fired in the next two goals, one at 10:08 that sent Kiprusoff to the bench, then another at 12:31. Just 15 seconds after that, Paul Stastny of the Colorado Avalanche scored from the slot to make it 6-0.

At that point, the Americans had an 11-2 lead in shots on goal, nothing like what was expected from the aggressive Finns after their upset of Sweden in the quarterfinals.

The shutout lasted until the final six minutes, when the Finns scored after the U.S. had replaced starting goaltender Ryan Miller with backup Tim Thomas.

Canada plays Slovakia in the other semifinal tonight.