Olympic Recap: Day 2 of Men’s Hockey
Day two of the men’s hockey tournament had twice as many games, and twice as much excitement. Each team has now played one game, as Group C played yesterday, and groups A and B took part in today’s games. There weren’t any surprises in the final scores, but here’s a quick glance at the outcomes of today’s games.
FINLAND 8, AUSTRIA 4
Austria looked poised for the upset over Finland, when they surprised everyone by being ahead 2-1 halfway through the first period. It only took Finland just over two minutes to score their second of the game however, as Sami Lepisto fired home the tying goal. The Finns added two more in the final period of the first to go into the intermission up by two. Olli Maatta and Olli Jokinen were the goal scorers. The second period started with Jussi Jokinen putting the Finns up 5-2. They would add another before 40 minutes had passed, as Petri Kontiola extended the lead to four. Austria battled hard in the third period, scoring two goals (both from Grabner, who completed the hat trick), but it wouldn’t have been enough even if Finland hadn’t also scored two third period goals. Jarkko Immonen scored the first of the two for Finland, getting Aleksander Barkov his first career Olympic point. Mikael Granlund would finish the scoring with just over a minute to go.
RUSSIA 5, SLOVAKIA 2
The score in this game could have been much worse. The score was quickly 2-0 or the Russians, the goals coming from Evgeni Malkin, and Alex Ovechkin. Ziga Jeglic brought Slovenia within one less than two minutes into the second period, but Ilya Kovalchuk gave Russia another two goal lead. It was short lived though, as Jeglic scored his second of the game just a minute later. It was a one goal game going into the third period. Sadly for Slovenia, Russia showed up for the last twenty minutes, and put two goals past Slovenia goaltender Robert Kristan. Valeri Nichushkin and Anton Belov were the two Russian goal scorers in the final twenty minutes.
UNITED STATES 7, SLOVAKIA 1
Yet another game with a tight start, as the game was tied at one apiece early in the second period. It took fourteen minutes for a goalie to finally be beat. John Carlson wired a slap shot past Jaroslav Halak to give team USA a 1-0 lead. They took that lead into the intermission, but Tomas Tatar tied the game just seconds into the second. The tie wouldn’t last long though, as Ryan Kesler and Paul Stastny would both score for team USA in just over a span of two minutes. They would score another four goals, coming from David Backes, Stastny again, Phil Kessel, and Dustin Brown. No goals were scored in the third, to keep the final score at 7-1.
CANADA 3, NORWAY 1
Despite a very slow start, the Canadians found some chemistry, and managed to defeat Norway. The first goal of the game came six minutes into the second period, as Shea Weber sent a bullet past everyone to put Canada up 1-0. About nine minutes later, Jamie Benn put the Canadians up by two. The third period started with a goal from Norway’s Patrick Thoresen , bringing them within one. It only took a minute for Canada to respond, as Drew Doughty fired in their third, and the final goal of the game.