The US men’s hockey team came out very strong against Finland in the semifinal matchup on Friday. Within the first 13 minutes of the game, the Americans scored 6 goals against two different Finnish goaltenders.
Patrick Kane scored twice in a huge first period against goalkeeper Mikka Kiprusoff. It took Paul Stastney only 15 more seconds to put another one in the net past Kiprusoff. Ryan Malone, Zach Parise, and Erik Johnson took care of the rest of the scoring for the Americans.
"There is no pressure. No one expects us to win, and for us to come out and dominate the way we did for the first 14 minutes says something about our grit and our character,” said US center Ryan Kesler.
US goaltender, Ryan Miller, had a fantastic performance with 18 saves and zero goals scored. He was replaced by Tim Thomas who gave up the only goal to Finland when the game was already in the books with just a few minutes left.
With this 6-1 victory, the US advances to the gold medal match on Sunday. America has a chance to win its first gold medal since 1980 and this time, it is not going to take a miracle to win.
“I have liked the way this team has responded throughout the tournament," said US defenseman Brian Rafalski."No one has panicked. We just keep working and keep improving. This gives us an opportunity to do something we didn't get done last time.”
