TURIN, Italy – All it takes in Olympic hockey to turn a bracket upside down is an unforeseen upset in the round-robin round.
Like Russia routing favored Sweden, 5-0. That result, combined with Team USA’s 4-1 victory over Kazakhstan Thursday night at Torino Esposizioni, allowed the Americans to jump into second place in Group B with three points. Russian and Sweden are third with two each.
Slovakia, which defeated Latvia, 6-3, is first with four points. Just like that, the Americans are back in it, thanks to Russia.
Team USA, which faces Slovakia on Saturday, needs four more points to guarantee it will advance to the quarterfinals with three other nations.
“We knew the Latvia game wasn’t the be-all, end-all,” said Doug Weight.
“In 2002, we came out like gangbusters and ran out of gas. Latvia was better than us but we played well tonight.”
Unlike their opener, the United States had some jump in the legs and a physical presence.
The highlight goal came near the end of the first period on the power play when Keith Tkachuk, always a tough guy to move, wouldn’t budge from the slot with Vladimir Antipin whacking him from behind. That allowed Brian Gionta to tip John-Michael Liles point shot, making it 3-0.
“People think you put a big guy in front he does a job,” Weight said.
“What Keith does is he is so strategic, so strong on his feet, he has the best stick in the league.
“A rebound gets on his stick, it’s in the net. They have so many worries with Keith. It creates more space for the guy on the half-wall and for the defenseman up top.”
Tkachuk was a permanent fixture although the Americans were just 2-for-10 on the power play. In the 98 Winter Games in Nagano, his role was more scoring off the wing. He turns 34 next month. His role has changed.
“I enjoy going to front of the net,” Tkachuk said. “It creates opportunities for others. If I can get it front of the goalie, anything going on net, it is going to go in. I enjoy that and that’s my job here.
“Yeah, we had a lot of 1/8missed 3/8 chances on the power play. But the reason we got those power plays is we were moving our feet. If we do that, we will get a lot of opportunities.”
Just as in the tie against Latvia, the Team USA struck early. Bill Guerin got the Americans first goal at 1:34 when Kazakhstan’s Andrey Samokhvalov mistakenly centered a puck into his own slot and Chris Drury picked it off to set up Guerin.
Seven minutes later, Brian Rolston made it 2-0 with a point shot through traffic that goalie Vitaly Kolesnik never saw.
The game was so lopsided, the Kazaks went 12 minutes into the period before getting a shot. Goalie Rick DiPietro faced only 12 shots, while the U.S. had 36.
“We didn’t give them opportunities,” Weight said.
“We didn’t get frustrated. We had a lot of power plays and moved it around real well, but couldn’t buy a goal. But we played a good, solid system game. We got the puck in when we had to.
“The risk on this big ice is you feel you have so much room on the ice, that you have to make plays. You have to make plays but when we get pressure, we have to get the puck deep, rely on speed and forecheck pressure.”
(c) 2006, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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PHOTOS (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): Hockey
AP-NY-02-16-06 1827EST
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