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Team USA, Russia fit to be tied
By Tim Buckley Deseret News Olympic specialist
WEST VALLEY CITY — It was late Friday night, and Herb Brooks was in a fog. Or maybe he really was all the way back there.
At Lake Placid. In 1980.
America's men's hockey team was still riding high from its 6-0 win over Finland in the USA's first game of these 2002 Winter Games, and the U.S. coach was looking ahead to Saturday night's opponent.
"We get the Soviet Union," Brooks said before catching himself. "Excuse me — the Russians."
It's been 10 years since former states of the Soviet Union played in Albertville as the Unified Team. Fourteen since the superpower made its final pre-breakup Olympic run in Calgary. And 22 years since those upstart Brooks-coached American college kids made their very own Miracle on Ice, upsetting the stoic Soviets en route to most-unlikely Lake Placid gold.
So forgive Brooks.
With all the recent hype over what happened in 1980 — last time American men won an Olympic hockey tournament, first time since then all 20 team members have reunited, then another team gathering to light the Salt Lake caldron during opening ceremonies — one can understand how the ol' coach made the slip.
But that was then, and this is now, and all Brooks could do Saturday — even with 1980 captain Mike Eruzione on hand in the upper deck at the E Center — was suffer through the ups and downs of his 2002 USA team's 2-2 tie with Russia.
Detroit Red Wings center Sergei Fedorov gave the Russians a 2-1 lead in the opening minutes of the third period, stuffing home a rebound goal that originated with Sergei Samsonov's shot from the left circle.
But American Brett Hull — Fedorov's Detroit teammate — answered with four minutes and 30 seconds remaining, beating Nikolai Khabibulin with a second-chance from down low, just to the Russian goalie's right.
Russia didn't look its sharpest in a 6-4 win Friday over qualifier Belarus — one of those ex-Soviet states. But the Americans — still stinging from 1998 disaster in Nagano, where they were unable to medal — did look strong in their opener.
In their first final-round game against the Finns, John LeClair of the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers merely notched a hat trick that was the USA's first since Pat LaFontaine's three goals vs. Austria at the 1984 Games in Sarejevo. And Mike Dunham of the Nashville Predators only recorded the first Olympic shutout for an American since Roy LeBlanc blanked Poland 3-0 in '92.
Though Dunham wasn't in goal Saturday night, it was another evening that belonged to netminders, especially at the start.
Amid chants of "U-S-A," American Mike Richter of the New York Rangers was on his game in the early going.
Only problem for the U.S. was that Khabibulin matched Richter save for save through a scoreless first period.
Early in the middle period, the Americans did finally found a crack in the Khabibulin wall.
Thirty-seven seconds into a 5-on-3 power play, Brian Leetch took a soft shot from the left circle that took a crazy path toward the goal, bouncing off two Russians in front of the net. Khabibulin made the initial save, but Keith Tkachuk jammed the loose puck past him, putting the Americans up 1-0.
Before the period was done, though, Russia would tie the game.
Using a cross-ice pass from Vladimir Malakhov, Valeri Bure beat a sprawled Richter with a high wrist shot from low in the left circle.
After Fedorov got his, the Russians hung on behind the stellar play of Khabibulin. Or they did, until Hull got his tying goal, leaving Brooks to realize that this really is 2002 after all.
E-MAIL: tbuckley@desnews.com
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February 17, 2002
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