USA Burns Finland 4-2 in Ice Hockey

By Joshua Walker

February 9, 2007

Yesterday’s 3:00 Hockey match between Team USA (2-1) and Team Finland (3-0) was a must win match for both teams. A Finnish win would guarantee the gold medal. While an American victory would mean that the only obstacle left to guarantee a gold medal was a victory over Germany (0-3) on Friday night.

In a tense-filled first period, both teams traded fruitless shots and physical hits that brought the 3000 fans in attendance out of their seats. Despite all the furious skating and skilled passing, both teams’ efforts to score would prove to be futile as the period ended in a 0-0 tie.

With each passing second, the pressure mounted as each breakaway heightened in importance. Despite scoring opportunities in abundance for both teams, the goalies played brilliantly stopping the puck point blank, shot after shot. An unlikely shot came at the 12:18 mark in favor of USA, breaking the tie 1-0 as Jason Kitchin received a pass from Ryan Krajewski and fired off a laser shot from the blue-line that beelined right past the stunned Finnish goalie, Arttu Liikamaa.

Merely three minutes later, as the stunned fans were still recovering from the unlikely Kitchin goal, Team USA scored once again. This time on a brilliant display of passing as USA managed to isolate Garrett Hepperly on the right side. Hepperly unleashed a slap-shot with bad intentions from fifteen feet out, that Liikamaa had no chance at saving, putting Team USA up 2-0. Team USA emboldened by their lead committed some penalties, perhaps out of frustration, the Finnish team matched Team USA tit for tat as four penalties were handed out in the last four minutes of the second period, two apiece. The second period ended with Team USA still in control 2-0.

At 2:46 into the third period, America scored again on a rebound goal by Michael Wonoski to go up 3-0. A few minutes later the Finnish team finally managed to slip one past American Goalie Jeff Mansfield, when Jukka Sihvonen scored on a power play goal at 6:41 cutting the American lead to 2. Four minutes later, USA’s own Matthew Jones III scored his first goal to put the lead back at 3 goals. With any possibility of a win quickly disappearing, a meaningless Finnish goal made the final score 4-2.