faba Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 Finland Eliminates Americans in Hockey By Associated Press document.write(getElapsed("20060222T190135Z"));10 minutes agoUPDATED 5 MINUTES AGO TURIN, Italy - The United States was eliminated from the Olympic men's hockey tournament Wednesday, losing 4-3 to undefeated Finland in the quarterfinals, and will return home from Turin with just one victory in six games. The Americans went only 1-4-1 in the tournament, claiming the fourth and last quarterfinal spot from Group B. Finland won Group A with a perfect 5-0 record. Olli Jokinen scored twice in the second period, breaking a 2-2 tie, and the undefeated Finns outskated the Americans to reach the semifinals. A late goal by Brian Gionta pulled the Americans within 4-3 with about five minutes left, but that was as close as they got _ despite pulling their goalie in the closing 1 1/2 minutes. Jokinen's second goal of the game, a shot that popped high in the air before bouncing off the top of the net and deflecting into the goal off the arm of U.S. goalie Rick DiPietro, came late in the second period and gave the Finns a 4-2 lead. Jokinen had scored his fourth goal of the tournament to give Finland a 3-2 lead earlier in the second period. It came with the Finns enjoying a two-man advantage. Mathieu Schneider had just scored for the Americans on a power play to pull the U.S. into a 2-2 tie before Jokinen's first goal, on which the Finnish forward took a sharply angled slap shot that flew over DiPietro's shoulder. Ville Peltonen and Sami Salo scored less than three minutes apart for Finland in the first period. Peltonen opened the scoring when he took a pass in the slot and fired a quick shot that went into DiPietro's pads and then slowly rolled behind him and dribbled into the net. It came 9:33 into the game. Then, while the Finns were short-handed, Salo stole the puck in his own end and skated a few strides into the U.S. zone and slapped a shot over DiPietro's glove. The U.S. responded quickly, though, making it 2-1 when Schneider took a shot from the point that deflected into the net off the arm of teammate Mike Knuble. Teemu Selanne, a Finnish forward who plays for the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, had his mouth bloodied early in the third period when American defenseman Derian Hatcher hit him in the face with his stick while trying to clear the puck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SweetLee83 Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 DiPietro with some WEAK goals. What a scrub. All the goalies sucked. 2010 they'll be good with Kessel and Miller to anchor the team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugg Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 US gave up 3 shorthanded goals in last 2 games. Which is what happens when you don't have anyone to run your power play and you're stuck with Mike Modano as your pointman. But they had toughness!, a worthless quality in Olympic hockey, unless you like Matt Schneider, Chris Chelios and Derian Hatcher creaking in their skates as wingers fly by them, and Laviolette and Waddell wanted that over Brian Leetch. No matter-no Ryan Miller, no medal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afosomf Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 US gave up 3 shorthanded goals in last 2 games. Which is what happens when you don't have anyone to run your power play and you're stuck with Mike Modano as your pointman. But they had toughness!, a worthless quality in Olympic hockey, unless you like Matt Schneider, Chris Chelios and Derian Hatcher creaking in their skates as wingers fly by them, and Laviolette and Waddell wanted that over Brian Leetch. No matter-no Ryan Miller, no medal. where is GGG been? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetsMan57 Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 USA came into this tournament ranked 6th, I doubt Ryan Miller makes the difference and gets us any sort of medal. Compared to the other teams in this tournament team USA is just not that good; No discipline, old, creaky defensemen struggling on the wider surface with a pop gun offense is a recipe for a quick exit in these world class tournaments. DiPietro gave up 5 goals in 3 games and they still lost 2 of those 3. That should tell you a lot about the team., But blame DiPi if you'd like (willis21) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
faba Posted February 23, 2006 Author Share Posted February 23, 2006 The US team was inferior to these other countries in talent and the type of team needed to win- actually goaltending was the least of their problems Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetsMan57 Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 The US team was inferior to these other countries in talent and the type of team needed to win- actually goaltending was the least of their problems Agreed which is why I do not understand the outcry for Ryan Miller. USA maybe wins one extra game with him in net, but I am confident they do not sniff a medal even with him. Again, we were ranked 6th headed into the tournament. What is the big surprise here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mavrik Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 like ive been saying, the US team is a team in transition. Out with the old in with the new. The team is going to be made up of a lot of the guys from the current U18 group that played at hte World Juniors this past year. LOADS of talent on there. Plus, that'll be 3 years that Ryan Miller will be able to mould into one of the top goaltenders in the league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
124 Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 Just goes to show you that the better players in today's NHL are foregin born...also that we should do some recruiting for the NHL in Finland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugg Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 Not sure it would've mattered. May be Miller steals a few games. DiPietro is a guy that's always played well, but gives up one more goal that the other guy. I Know that's hardly scientific, but it's a sense you get from watching hockey. Some guys will always give up a goal less, others play well enough to lose.May be Miller makes the difference to get them in a bronze medal game. But granted-the US defense is old and awful and Gionta, who's a great player, shouldn't be the only offensive threat. Saw it suggested that they should have went all young-Miller, Mike York, Zach Parise, etc. and in retrospect they couldn't have done any worse. With such a popgun offense and creaky defense as was there, Miller might not have helped. I know I'm beating this into the ground, but if any old guy who can still play should've been there, it should have been Leetch. There isn't a classier guy; he wouldn't have said boo to Laviolette like Modano did. And how it is they bring in the other old dogs-Chelios, hatcher, Schneider, Modano, Tkachuk-and not Leetch, I don't know. It showed on the power play and in all the stupid penalties these guys took. Back to Rangers hockey. Hurry up with this Turin stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetsMan57 Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 Not sure it would've mattered. May be Miller steals a few games. DiPietro is a guy that's always played well, but gives up one more goal that the other guy. I Know that's hardly scientific, but it's a sense you get from watching hockey. Some guys will always give up a goal less, others play well enough to lose.May be Miller makes the difference to get them in a bronze medal game. But granted-the US defense is old and awful and Gionta, who's a great player, shouldn't be the only offensive threat. Saw it suggested that they should have went all young-Miller, Mike York, Zach Parise, etc. and in retrospect they couldn't have done any worse. With such a popgun offense and creaky defense as was there, Miller might not have helped. I know I'm beating this into the ground, but if any old guy who can still play should've been there, it should have been Leetch. There isn't a classier guy; he wouldn't have said boo to Laviolette like Modano did. And how it is they bring in the other old dogs-Chelios, hatcher, Schneider, Modano, Tkachuk-and not Leetch, I don't know. It showed on the power play and in all the stupid penalties these guys took. Back to Rangers hockey. Hurry up with this Turin stuff! Agreed. I understand where you're coming from with DiPi. Wasnt Tkachuk out of shape when he reported to blues camp? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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