Welcome to the game blog for Team USA's opening match of the 2008 IIHF Men's World Championship. I'll be providing commentary from tonight's tilt against Latvia and encourage your comments and questions before, during and after the game. Send them to camerone@usahockey.org and take note that I will publish some comments and questions as I see fit. What we learned: Team USA has a very strong power play to say the least. The game was filled with penalties and the Americans took advantage. Having Patrick Kane quarterbacking the man advantage is a big bonus for coach John Tortorella. Kane’s speed forces players out of position and leaves the goalie still fearing the youngster’s shot or pass. Glass half empty: The U.S. never potted an even-strength goal and Latvia had its chances 5-on-5. Glass half full: You are supposed to score on your power plays and the U.S. did just that. Even strength play may not have produced a goal, but the Americans out shot Latvia 49 to 24 leaving little doubt which team was in control. Latvia finding its scoring chances isn’t a huge surprise. We’re watching the elite hockey players on the planet and Latvia is not any different. Player of the game: I’m going to go with Kane by a nose over Thomas but it was close. Thomas made some unbelievable saves and changed the game, but the U.S. offense ran through the Blackhawks rookie and he shined in his Men’s Worlds debut. What’s next: Slovenia, Sunday at 7:15 p.m. EDT Questions: Readers wanted to know how the boys looked, specifically some of the young ones like Mueller and Kessel. I thought all the young players looked good. Remember, this may be their first trip to worlds, but they’ve seen this sort of tournament several times. I thought Mueller was strong with the puck and Kessel bounced around and forced the action throughout the game. I had a request come in from a former host family to give a report on Latvian Lauris Darzins. He logged one penalty and moved well from what I observed. He was involved in a few of the many skirmishes as well. Darzins and his teammates were limited with what they could showcase because the U.S. players were on them very fast whenever they had the puck. One reader wanted to know how Team USA’s average age of 24 stacked up to other teams in the tournament. I’ll have to get back to you on more specifics, but we know this is the youngest Team USA has been in a while. Hope you enjoyed this game blog and please send me your comments and questions. --- End of game: U.S. wins 4-0 Team USA scores four power play goals to win its opener. I'll be back in a few minutes with some final thoughts and my player of the game. --- Less than 5 minutes to go and the Latvians are fighting for pride, challenging every American skater. The Latvian fans are doing their part too, flashing enough thumbs down to suggest it's the country's national hockey gesture. --- Thomas needs to release a video on how to make acrobatic saves after this game. His most recent chapter was a brilliant left-to-right sliding save coupled with a spinning save that kicked out a elevated shot with his blocker. --- GOAL: Team USA 4, Latvia 0 Peter Mueller carried the puck in and drew the defense with him before feeding the puck to the net where a collection of U.S. players awaited. Patrick O'Sullivan was there to poke the puck in and give Team USA its fourth power play tally. Paul Martin collects his third point of the game on an assist. --- Kane assisted on Parise's goal for his third point of the night. Things are getting chippy now as Bures crashed into the Latvian net, dislodging the goalie's helmet and leaving Team USA at 4-on-4. --- GOAL: Team USA 3, Latvia 0 Zach Parise took the shot from the goalie's left side, the puck dribbled through the pads and sat behind the goaltender before Parise followed his shot, reached behind the goalie and beat the Latvian defender to the puck to slap the puck in for a goal. --- Kane's speed creates another power play chance as he escaped a hit in the corner and worked it to the front of the net before absorbing a cross check. Kane is a step ahead of almost everyone on the ice. --- Nothing came of the two-man advantage. This could turn into an important moment if Latvia can score a goal before too much time expires. We're at about 14 minutes to go. --- Whistles galore to start the third. Team USA penatly killers did a good job in the opening minutes and led to a Latvia penalty and a 4-on-4 ... then Ballard's aggressive move at the blue line led to a scoring chance and another penalty as the U.S. has a 5-on-3. --- Period 2 ends With the game 4-on-4 and time winding down in the period, Thomas came up huge with a point-blank save on a Latvian forward. The puck bounced in front of the net and Thomas had to fight off two dekes before kicking out the shot at the low post to keep Latvia scoreless. Aside from Kane, Thomas is stealing the show tonight. Without three epic saves, this game could be going the other way. Team USA leads 2-0 after 2. --- Backes with another penalty after laying out two Latvians on one play. Clean penalty though with about 1 minute to go in the period. The U.S. needs to be more careful with its penalties. One goal can change this game quickly. --- Lee Stempniak was brought down on a breakaway and was awarded a penalty shot. He stayed true down the middle without a big deke and was stoned. Is this a turning point? The Latvian crowd thinks so. --- GOAL: Team USA 2, Latvia 0 Pat Kane now has a goal to go with an assist on the earlier goal. Latvia let him walk in from the point and he let loose a wrister targeted for the top right corner that didn't miss. --- Midway through the period, Team USA's puck possession in Latvia's zone leads to a power play and also helped the U.S. hold a two-man advantage for 15 seconds with the goaltender pulled. Play like that will result in goals and must be maintained. --- Thomas flashed the leather 5 minutes into the second stoning a low glove side shot from the high slot that should have gone in. The goaltender will need to keep that going to stave of Latvia. --- Ballard led the aggressive penalty kill with a crushing hit and the U.S. kills of the man advantage. The important part about the kill is that the Americans were the aggresors despite being down a player. --- Less than 2 into the second and David Backes absolutely flat backed a Latvian player ... who didn't have the puck. Latvia back on the powerplay. --- Captain Jeff Halpern missed ESPN's top plays by about a foot. He slapped at a puck in the slot while falling down and sent it floating toward the top corner of the net. The puck fluttered just wide keeping the U.S. from a shorthanded goal and Halpern from an early highlight reel goal. Oh, and we're underway in the second. Team USA looks like Tortorella lit a fire. --- Period 1 ends - Team USA leads 1-0 after the first. The U.S. has to cut down on its penalties. For starters, this Latvian team is energized by its crowd and is dangerous on the power play. Second, when the U.S. has to kill of penalties it is forced to play to Latvia instead of the other way around. --- Latvia had good pressure on its power play with Thomas needing a good save to close out the advantage with just under 2 minutes to go in the period. --- The parade continues. Team USA now on the penalty kill with 4 minutes to play. --- A U.S. penalty kills off its own advantage. We're 4-on-4. --- The second U.S. power play never really took off, with Latvia cutting off passing lanes. However, Latvia was tagged with another penalty shortly after the first one expired, so Team USA is back on the power play with under nine minutes to go. --- Team USA's speed generated an interference penalty and the Americans will look for their second power play goal in as many chances. --- GOAL: Team USA's Dustin Brown handled a rebound in front of the net and scored on the power play to give his team a 1-0 lead 7 minutes into the game. --- 13:18 into the period and two things are evident. The U.S. defensemen can move the puck out of the zone. They are fast and great at handling the puck. Second, the U.S. is pushing the physical game. A lot of early hits. --- A huge Latvian contingent is helping their team early on. Just under 5 minutes into the match, Latvia rang a power play shot off the pipe and Team USA dodged an early bullet and killed off the Ballard penalty. --- We're underway. Team USA is sporting 1960 retro jerseys. Keith Ballard draws the first U.S. penalty of the tournament. --- The action begins at 7:15 p.m. EDT tonight. The most recent posts will be at the top of this page. I hope you join the conversation, I enjoyed doing the game blog for the 2008 World Junior Championships and had a great response from readers. |