Canada, US dispute gold in men's hockey

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Neighborhood rivals Canada and the United States will meet Sunday for the gold medal in men's hockey, the home favorite against the surprise top seed looking for its first Olympic title since the Miracle on Ice in 1980.

Canada advanced Friday with a 3-2 win over Slovakia in the semifinals, while the Americans routed Finland 6-1.

Sunday's game will be rematch of the 2002 Salt Lake City gold medal game, won 5-2 by Canada. It's also a rematch of last Sunday's stunning 5-3 win by the U.S. in round-robin play, a result that nearly derailed the Canadians from the mission that the entire country feels must be accomplished — winning the gold medal of the national sport on home soil.

"I can't wait," Canada forward Jarome Iginla said. "We love the chance of playing them again. There's a lot of rivalries with them — from world juniors through the ladies. They beat us. Now we have the opportunity to play them again. It's going to be exciting, for the gold medal."

The are plenty of questions to be answered in the Olympic final.

Can the U.S. repeat its well-earned initial victory over Canada? Will the Canadians succumb to the pressure of playing a gold-medal game before its more-than-demanding home fans? Can the U.S. win an Olympic hockey gold outside of the United States for the first time, and on the 50th anniversary of its surprise victory at the 1960 Squaw Valley Games? Can Canadian star Sidney Crosby, a Stanley Cup champion in the NHL at age 21, add an Olympic gold at age 22?

Canada's 2002 victory was huge, but this game should be even bigger. Then, the U.S. hadn't already beaten Canada, and this Canadian team was hyped as the best since NHL players first began appearing in the Olympics in 1998. The passion got an early start Friday when chants of "We Want U.S.A.!" rang out during the Canadians' victory, and "We Want Canada!" was heard during the Americans' win.

The way Canada is playing now, outscoring Germany, Russia and Slovakia 18-7 since that U.S. loss, it probably will be favored again. That's OK with American players such as defenseman Jack Johnson, who said he heard no talk before leaving for Vancouver that the United States beat the Canadians.

However, it is the U.S. that is unbeaten in Vancouver. And it was the Americans who had the easier time Friday, scoring six goals in the first 13 minutes against Finland.

The first four came on seven shots against Miikka Kiprusoff, whose stellar play had put the Finns into the medal contention. Kiprusoff was then replaced by Niklas Backstrom, who allowed two goals on the next four U.S. shots.

Patrick Kane scored twice, and Ryan Malone, Zach Parise, Eric Johnson, and Paul Stastny each had one goal for the Americans.

"It was a crazy 12 minutes," Kane said. "I've never been a part of something like that. It seemed like we were scoring every shift."

The lead was so comfortable that the U.S. pulled goalie Ryan Miller with 11:31 left in the game, giving backup Tim Thomas his first appearance in the tournament.

"We haven't won anything yet," Parise said. "We're getting better and that's the most important and rewarding thing."

Canada seemed to be cruising as well when Patrick Marleau, Brenden Morrow and Ryan Getzlaf scored in the opening 24 minutes against Slovakia, but Lubomir Visnovsky and Michal Handzus netted less than four minutes apart in the third period to set up a tense finish.

But the Canadians held on, setting up a payback game on what is sure to be a memorable final day of the Vancouver Olympics.

"I don't know if you need revenge when you are in the final," Crosby said. "You probably don't need any more motivation than that. This is going to be our biggest test yet."