February 6, 2007

On Tuesday, February 6, emotions ran high as the USA met Canada in a much hyped, standing-room-only game at the Steiner Ice Center. Canada, the gold medalists at the 2003 Winter Deaflympic Games in Sundsvall, Sweden, was the favorite – but this was match was on USA’s turf. The two teams battled it out, back and forth, and saw three USA and two Canadian players sent into the penalty box, all before the first goal by Canada’s Steven Devine at 9:28 in the first period.

The two teams were extremely physical with each other, sending three more USA and three Canadians into the penalty box in the first period. Near the end, with seven seconds left, Canadian Walter Pearson scored their second goal.

In the second period, USA looked more alive than they had in the first, and this energized the crowd even further. Almost immediately, Jonathan Lobodzinski scored Canada’s third goal, 2:28 into the period. Several more penalties followed, from high slashing to rough housing to misconduct all causing game delays. Down by three, USA fought back hard and goaltender Jeff Mansfield made several amazing saves, much to Canada’s displeasure.

Two minutes after he left the penalty box, for slashing, USA’s Andy Howard scored the first goal, and the USA crowd went wild. “Three more, three more, three more,” the crowd screamed. “USA, USA, USA!” You could feel the highly charged atmosphere as everyone, on both sides, began to cheer for their side.

Canada’s goaltender, Ryan Armitage, made several saves as well, and it wasn’t until there were 26 seconds left in the second period that Anthony McGaughey, Jr. upped the USA score to two, and boosted the team’s momentum even further. As the period ended, the USA players were looking worn, but they entered the third period looking strong as Jason Kitchin scored USA’s third goal within the first two minutes.

The first two periods were penalty-filled, but the third period saw only three USA players and one Canadian sent into the boxes. Michael Wonoski scored another goal to add to USA’s score at 14:28 into the period. By this time, the puck stayed mostly in the Canadian half, until USA player Michael Drew was penalized two minutes for delay of game. This meant that the Canadians had one man up on the USA, with 2:77 left in the period.

Canada tried to take advantage of this, but Mansfield made several more saves that kept the USA on top until Drew was finally able to re-enter the game. At this point, Canada took out their goalie and sent one more man in to make it a 6-on-5 game – placing tremendous pressure on the USA to secure their position in the last few seconds of the period. When it was down to four seconds, Canada hit the puck from across the rink, but missed the goal, giving USA the win. The final score was USA 4, Canada 3. Altogether, the penalty-riddled game had players sitting in the box for a total of 61 minutes and 24 penalties.

When asked about his team’s performance, USA Hockey Coach, Jeff Sauer, commented, “These boys deserved the win. They worked hard for it over the past several months and they played well together as a team. More than that, they have the depth, perception, skill and dedication that one would expect from an Olympic team. I’d have to say their stamina was probably the lynchpin because the moment Canada began to tire, that’s when we took full advantage of the situation. I’m proud of the whole team!”

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