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First Intermission Thoughts

Remember the Neutral Zone Trap? That's what much of the half of the first period felt like. An old Devils game, with forwards challenging and harassing the puck carriers in the neutral zone. But it wasn't some system or method of disruption. Sloppy passes, sloppy play, bad stickhandling marked a period where the skaters may as well have been on slush.

The Canadians carried the play, and kept pressure on Jaroslav Halak, but Halak remained steadfast in net. Despite the disproportionate shot totals, with six and a half minutes left the score was still knotted at zero. Shea Weber put the puck towards the net. The high knuckling puck was redirected in air by Patrick Marleau to open the scoring. Halak had good position of Weber's shot, but was totally unprepared for the tip.

Slovakia had an acceptable period disrupting Canada and capitalizing on Candian misplays. But they failed to generate any discernible offensive punch. What's worse that on at least two occasions they showed little taste for a scrum to control the puck in the Canadian end of the ice. They also did a horrendous job of keeping opposing players out of Halak's line of sight with shooters. The mistake of the first Canadian goal came back to haunt Slovakia again.

Chris Pronger sent a drive to the net allowing Brenden Morrow to tip it past Halak. A pair of goals on re-directs gives Slovakia an opportunity for adjustment. However, Canada has worked out their jitters. They will not be as tentative in the second period as they were in the first ten minutes. Halak weathered the softest part of the storm. The real fury is about to begin.

Scoring Summary

• 13:30 Patrick Marleau from Shea Weber and Scott Niedermayer
• 15:17 Brenden Morrow from Chris Pronger and Ryan Getzlaf

Penalties

Shots

Joe Tetreault blogs about sports, culture, business/technology and current events at TetreaultVision in addition to being the Editor for Bloguin's Olympic Hockey Blog.

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vs.

Semi-final 2: Canada vs. Slovakia - February 26, 2010 6:30pm PST - Canada Hockey Place

The next test for Team Canada comes against Team Slovakia in the second semi-final game of the day. With most of Canadian fans already looking to a game on Sunday against the Americans, Slovakia may bring a few surprises with their competitiveness tonight. Unlike in the earlier semifinal, both Canada and Slovakia went the qualification playoff route, with Canada winning over Germany and Slovakia winning over Norway. Slovakia advanced to the semifinal after a win over the pre-tournament favorite, Team Sweden who were the 2006 Olympic champions.

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Game Thoughts

Ryan Miller came off with just over eleven and a half minutes to play. A standing ovation was in order. His last 110 minutes of play had been an unblemished exhibition of goalie perfection. And though Tim Thomas was fooled on Antti Miettinen's blast that deflected off Jack Johnson, the US played a near perfect sixty minutes of hockey in what felt an awful lot like a NHL playoff game./p>

Team USA never looked back after their first period explosion. And though they didn't score after Stastny's goal, they played stifling defense, leaving Finland stunned and defeated from the early going. Unlike the previous contests where Miller's expertise was needed to keep the US in the game, they jumped out and scored and took Finland out of it.

A fantastic sixty minutes of hockey for team USA. It was as a complete a performance as we've seen from them in these Olympics. And they will need another sixty minutes just like it to bring home the gold.

Team USA has clinched a medal for the second time in the last three winter games. They await the winner of the Canada-Slovakia game.

Gold Medal game is set for Sunday at noon pacific time, 3 pm eastern time.

Scoring Summary

• 14:46 Antti Miettinen from Sami Lepisto

Penalties

• 0:22 Nicklas Backstrom (Interference served by Teemu Selanne)
• 2:43 Ryan Malone (High Sticking)
• 8:29 Sami Lepisto (Cross Checking)
• 13:37 Erik Johnson (Interference)

Shots

Joe Tetreault blogs about sports, culture, business/technology and current events at TetreaultVision in addition to being the Editor for Bloguin's Olympic Hockey Blog.

Email Joe This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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