Waking Its Neighbors, U.S. Upsets Canada
With a hard-earned, thrilling victory Sunday, the United States surprised Canada, both the hockey team and the nation.
The Americans did it exactly as General Manager Brian Burke and Coach Ron Wilson built them to do it — through speed, relentless diligence and unflappable goalkeeping. They withstood a furious Canadian attack, hitting as hard as they got hit, and prevailed despite the deafening roars of the red-clad crowd at Canada Hockey Place.
“For these young guys I think it was great to win in an atmosphere like this,” Wilson said. “Everything was stacked against us, but we came out on top.”
It was a consummate team effort, but two players stood out.
The first was defenseman Brian Rafalski, the oldest skater on the youngest team in the Olympic tournament. He scored the first two United States goals and took the shot that Jamie Langenbrunner tipped in to make it 4-2 in the third period.
“After scoring those first two, the adrenaline really wiped me out, actually,” the 36-year-old Rafalski said. “Who expects to score two goals in the first period in a big game like that? I had to try to recover and get prepared for the second.”
The other standout was goalie Ryan Miller, who turned aside 42 of Canada’s 45 shots.
“I knew they were going to bring pucks to the net,” said Miller, who withstood a barrage of shots to give the United States a chance to win. “I just tried to keep it really simple. If I start bouncing all over the ice, I’m not very efficient. So I had to trust that my guys were going to be around me and I could keep it more contained.”
It was a physical, high-speed game that lived up to its billing as part of Super Sunday, a tripleheader that pitted Russia against the Czech Republic, the United States and Canada and then Sweden versus Finland.
The victory was the third in three games for the Americans — they have the maximum 9 points — and earned them a bye into the quarterfinals Wednesday, where they will be the No. 1 seed and face the winner of the Switzerland-Belarus game. The victory against the Canadians, favorites coming into these Games, was a small measure of revenge for a loss to them in the 2002 Olympic final in Salt Lake City.
Sunday’s loss left Canada with 5 points and sent it to a qualification game against Germany on Tuesday.
Martin Brodeur, who stopped only 18 of 22 shots and was partly to blame on two of the goals he allowed, said he welcomed the extra game.
“I hate to say this, but I think we just need to play more games,” he said. “There’s things we need to work on.”
Canada Coach Mike Babcock said he would decide whether to replace Brodeur in goal with Roberto Luongo after watching video of the game.
The Canadians controlled most of the play, passing crisply and at high speed. But it was the Americans who scored first, almost instantly.
Only 41 seconds into the game Rafalski fired a shot from the blue line that deflected in off the stick of Canada’s Sidney Crosby.
Canada struck back at 8 minutes 53 seconds on Eric Staal’s tip-in. But only 22 seconds later Rafalski scored again, allowed to walk in from the blue line after picking off Brodeur’s clearing pass.
Rafalski also scored the last two goals in the United States’ 6-1 victory over Norway, meaning he scored four goals in a row for the Americans.
Dany Heatley tied it at 2-2 early in the second period, but Chris Drury restored the Americans’ lead at 16:46. David Backes got in Brodeur’s way, and Brodeur dove to push the puck away from Bobby Ryan but missed and put himself out of the play. The puck came to Drury, who slotted it in to make it 3-2.
At 7:09 of the third period, Rafalski’s power-play shot was deflected in by Langenbrunner to push the United States lead to 4-2. Canada mounted a frantic comeback, with Crosby scoring with three minutes to go to draw Canada to 4-3. But Miller stood firm.
The victory was sealed when Ryan Kesler leapt around Canada’s Corey Perry to push the puck into an empty net with less than a minute to go, the Americans’ hustling effort distilled into one play.
“We were just playing against the boys in the red uniforms, but the crowd made it exciting,” Miller said. “It was a fun environment. I’ve been walking around the last few nights and taking some of the trash talking.”
Trash talking? In Canada?
“It was actually the most polite trash talking I’ve ever heard in my life, because we’re in Canada,” Miller said. “Most of them were just, ‘Hey, that’s Ryan Miller, the American goalie.’ And their friends would rally around and say, ‘Go Canada,’ or something like that.
“They know the game, they respect the game,” he said, calm and collected after a victory he helped secure. “That’s what makes it great to come here and play.”
Bode Finally Earns Olympic Gold
This is the way Bode Miller always wanted it to happen, needed it to happen.
An Olympic gold medal may be the ultimate evidence of skiing success in everyone else's eyes, but most assuredly not in his. If the willful Miller ever was going to earn one and truly embrace the accomplishment, this is how it had to be.
He conquered a tricky course with sometimes-spectacular skiing that reminded him of being a kid on the slopes. He overcame a big deficit by pushing himself despite a bum left knee and an aching right ankle. In sum, he turned in a performance that pleased him, regardless of what the clock said.
In this case, it just so happens, Miller's total time from one downhill and one slalom was Sunday's best, allowing the 32-year-old from Franconia, N.H., to win the super-combined event signifying all-around skiing ability -- and that first career gold. He now has a record-tying three medals at these Olympics after only three races, quite a comeback from his infamous flop at the 2006 Turin Games and his near-retirement last year.
"The gold medal is great. I think it's perfect. Ideally, that's what everyone is shooting for. But the way I skied these last races is what matters. I would've been proud of that skiing with a medal or not," Miller said after turning in the third-fastest slalom leg for an overall time of 2 minutes, 44.92 seconds, a comfortable 0.33 ahead of Ivica Kostelic of Croatia. Silvan Zurbriggen of Switzerland got the bronze.
"The way I executed -- the way I skied -- is something I'll be proud of the rest of my life," Miller said.
Whether he ever says so or not, it's the Olympic gold medal that changes history's view of Miller. What happened in Turin is now an aberration rather than the defining moment. Now he'll always be seen by those outside the sport as one of Alpine skiing's greats who frittered away one Olympics, not a should-have-been who never fulfilled his promise.
"I mean, Bode has now done everything you can in skiing. He's won World Cups. He's won World Cup overall titles," said Will Brandenburg of Spokane, Wash., who finished 10th in his Olympic debut. "He's won medals in every color. And now he's got the gold. And I think that's big. He's one of the best skiers of all time now and no one can discredit that."
Older and perhaps wiser -- although good luck getting this guy to admit the latter -- Miller is at the top of his game at the right time.
What a week.
He also won a bronze in Monday's downhill and a silver in Friday's super-G, adding to two silvers at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. The five Alpine medals tie him for the second-most by any man in Olympic history, behind only the eight won by Kjetil Andre Aamodt of Norway.
At this point, who would doubt that Miller could keep going, maybe coming up with something special in the two remaining events, the giant slalom Tuesday and the slalom Saturday.
Miller was asked why he's doing this now, and not in Italy four years ago, when he tuned out, partied hard and failed to live up to the expectations thrust on him by the media, by sponsors, by fans. Miller only finished two of five races back then, never better than fifth place.
In short, he said, what happened there was a reaction to all of those expectations. And what's happening here is a reaction to enjoying a fresh sense of excitement after taking time away from skiing and thinking about quitting before eventually deciding in September to return to the U.S. Ski Team.
"In '06, I didn't really necessarily want to be there for a number of reasons ... but, you know, I also didn't want to not be there. So I was incredibly conflicted," he said. "I think I had no intention really of blowing it, but I raced as hard as I could, but I didn't have this motivation. I didn't have the energy and the enthusiasm."
Some of that comes from spending more time around his younger teammates. At the last Olympics, Miller stayed in his own RV, away from the rest of the Americans. At these Olympics, he's living in a condo with everyone else, eating with everyone else, training with everyone else, feeding off the energy of everyone else.
"He's been really motivated," said Ted Ligety, the surprise 2006 Turin gold medalist who was fifth Sunday. "It's cool to really see him win an Olympic gold. That's what's been missing from his resume."
Miller got a late start to training before the World Cup season, and when he worked hard to get going, he hurt his left knee and needed arthroscopic surgery in October to clean it out. Another setback came in December, when Miller injured his right ankle playing volleyball, of all things. On top of that, he took a bad tumble in slalom training at Whistler, flying about 35 feet before landing on his left hip.
In the downhill that opened the super-combined, Miller was only seventh-fastest. He knew he had to make up time in the slalom, and it didn't help that he was hurting and felt exhausted, even if he did begin his career as a slalom specialist.
Miller increased his lead at both checkpoints in the slalom, but after skiing fluidly at the top, he barely managed to get through one gate after another on a demanding course set by Kostelic's father and coach, Ante.
"I was like, 'God, get me to the finish.' I knew I had a great run going, but I mean, I don't know how I got those last 15 gates," Miller said. "It was literally just willpower, because my legs were completely shot."
He moved into the lead, but had to wait while six other skiers who were faster in the downhill portion got their turns, including double medalist Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway.
"I couldn't hold back," Svindal said. "I had to attack it if I had any chance to get that gold."
But when Svindal, who had the fastest morning downhill, skied off-course in the slalom, that gold medal was Miller's.
As he walked away from the finish area, he stopped to sign autographs and pose for pictures, even kneeling down to eye level to thank one girl for her support. Miller's own daughter turned 2 this week, and while he won't tell you fatherhood changed him as a person, he will say it made him reconsider his priorities away from the slopes.
When he's on skis, he refuses to change this stance: Medals are not what matters.
Still, Miller's father, Woody, who was at Sunday's race, said his kid "was hungry" to perform well this time around.
"He's enjoying himself. That's always been key for him. He lost that. That was what was key in Torino," Woody Miller said. "He was going through the motions, but not really enjoying himself."
Miller did, indeed, make clear that he was happy to finally have a gold, but he also repeatedly made the point that there are other rewards he finds more satisfying.
"It's hard to really describe in a way that makes sense, but the actual gold medal doesn't mean that much. If I'd won it in a way that I wasn't excited about or proud of today, I would have probably resented the medal in a certain way because of what it makes everyone else think," Miller said.
A few minutes later, he added: "People are generally not good at separating those two things. They think you're proud because you won an Olympic medal, and the reality is I'm proud because I skied that way at the Olympics."
With that, he walked away from the race site, heading off to collect his new prize at the official medal ceremony in the village below the mountain, his mountain. And then maybe, just maybe, Miller would head out to celebrate his gold medal.
View Larger Map
Sources: AP, NY Times, ESPN, Youtube, Google Maps
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment