6 Blackhawks To Play For Gold
On Friday, Sweden won a tight game 2-1 with rival Finland to advance. Later, Carey Price and Canada shutout the United States 1-0 to move on.
On Sunday, six Chicago Blackhawks will play for a gold medal in Sochi.
In the late game, Jamie Benn tipping home a Jay Bouwmeester pass from the point was the sum of the offense in an incredibly well played game. Price stopped all 31 shots from the Americans to earn the victory, while Jonathan Quick – who is far too accustomed to getting to offensive support – took the loss in spite of his 36 saves.
Patrick Kane skated 20:25 in the loss, but was the most dynamic playmaker for the United States in the game. He was credited with three shots on goal.
For the victors, Duncan Keith skated 20:23 without a shot on net. Patrick Sharp was credited with five shots on net – three coming in the first period – and saw 10:26 on the ice. Jonathan Toews’ line was tasked with shutting down Phil Kessel’s top scoring unit for the US and they were successful. Toews won 10 of 16 faceoffs and skated 6:23 of his 15:45 in the final period.
Keith, Sharp and Toews will face three familiar faces in the gold medal game.
In their 2-1 victory, Sweden relied heavily on Niklas Hjalmarsson and Johnny Oduya. Hjalmarsson skated more than eight minutes in the third period – exactly 22 minutes in the game – and Oduya was on the ice for 21:25 in front of a sterling performance from Henrik Lundqvist. Marcus Kruger played 12:41 in the game and won 11 of 16 faceoffs.
It seems all the hawks have played well and it will nice to get to see our boys back at home…
only another week before Hawks are back in action.
Pretty good 2 days of hockey. W omen’s game yesterday a barn burner. Mens game today was tight. US ladies just gave one away. In the end it was some puck luck via a bizarre deflection goal, and better goaltending that won the game for Canada. US girls outplayed Canada but could not close it out. US men did not have the skate jump today and Canada played Hawkesque team D to move to Gold medal game.
Hawks players were good today, and as Tab said the Swedish Hawks were very strong. Kruger really was impressive with his game feel and positioning. Hammer and Johny were excellent especially with Krugs on the 2 man PK. The Cpt was everywhere today for Canada. Shows up big time for the money games as per usual. Sharpy played smart and was a threat offensively. Duncs was solid along with other dmen for Canada. Kaner was dangerous and overall has been a good player for team USA. USA had no puck luck today. Maybe tomorrow against a tough Finn team.
Sweden was lucky to not face Rask today, but their special teams are winning games for them along with strong play from Hank.
I have to take Canada in the final.
JS, beer glasses were clean and ready for you today. Hope you found a good tavern in the city!
Good couple games today. A joy to watch.
Hopefully the US doesn’t come out deflated tomorrow against the Finns because you don’t want to have to play from behind against that team.
I’m rooting for the Swedes against Canada on Sunday because my family comes from Sweden. But either way the Hawks will end up with 3 golds and 3 silvers – pretty nice.
I’ve said it for two weeks. Beware Sweden. My personal view is Sweden beats Canada. And in fact, I will now be rooting for it.
Very impressive what Sweden has been doing without Sedin and now Zetterberg out.
Wings and Islanders owners will not be happy with Olypics after Zetterberg and Tavares injuries!
I had a feeling CAN would take it to USA.
Brown, Wheeler, Flower, no Ryan, Yandle… USA Coaching staff, Geniuses.
Well it wasn’t as though Canada blew the USA out. They played a strong team defense and kept the US from getting many breakouts with speed. The game could have gone either way. Just a bounce here or there. That’s hockey. Ask the USA girls about that one.
Sweden has an excellent draw through these games. They also barely beat the Finns by a soft goal give up. If Canada play the way they did today, they should handle Sweden. At some point some of these Canadian shots are going to find the back of the net. If Sweden win it will on Hank’s shoulders I’m sure.
The US never looked great in Sochi. And in my opinion Canada has underachieved and is beatable. The Swedes can absolutely beat Canada.
Although I am bummed out about the loss, must acknowledge that Canada played a better game today. The US looked a bit tentative imo and did not have the hop in their step they had against the Russian team. Team Canada brought more offensive firepower to the rink today and we couldn’t get a break near the net (Price played as well as I’ve seen.) Couple of thoughts:
* The Olympics have been great for hockey (again), the NHL would be crazy to try and stop their players from participating.
* Aggressive, pinching and fast puck moving D-men (ala Q’s approach), present a far more interesting, exciting style of hockey to watch than the bend don’t break defensive style USA showed today until it was too late.
* USA hockey federation ought to apologize for not recognizing it’s all about beating Canada at this point. You do that by bringing more offensive weapons along for the trip (such as Ryan and Yandle as Mo suggested)..
* The future addition of our Mr. Saad to the mix will be great to watch.
Go Sweden… and then let’s get back to Blackhawks hockey..
So Ruf you really think the Swedes are gonna win? I don’t care which team wins this weekend. Just hope it is an entertaining game and our guys come back unscathed.
Sweden wins. I agree with Rufus. Sweden is en fuego right now and Lundquist will be the deciding factor. Canada gets its comeuppance on Sunday.
Paul Martin’s injury was bigger than anyone is talking about. Throughout the games, when Martin and Orpik got back together, they were the shutdown defensemen. The US missed that yesterday.
Martin’s injury could be huge for Pittsburgh, who will already be without Letang down the stretch.
Pittsburgh could use half their ahl roster and win that division… Without those players they might not be given the 1 seed now.
When they play teams from Boston division, without those players…
If redwings get their good players back by then, they could be the 4/5 and play them with be allowed to cheat more then most teams.