Minnesota Wild forward Zach Parise – a captain for Team USA – put it bluntly when he told the Star Tribune the Americans “need some revenge” against Canada for the overtime loss the Canadians put on the U.S. in the gold-medal game at the 2010 games in Vancouver, Canada.
Revenge was not had by the Americans today as they were blanked 1-0 in the semifinal round of the men’s tournament in Sochi, Russia.
Canada moves on to play Sweden in for the gold medal while the U.S. will meet Finland for the bronze medal on Saturday. That game will feature three members of the Minnesota Wild – Parise and Ryan Suter on Team USA and Mikael Granlund for the Finns.
Goaltender Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings kept the Americans in the game, but Canada suffocated the U.S. with its best defensive game of the tournament. Quick stopped 36 of 37 shots. Carey Price pitched the shutout for Canada, stopping 31 shots in the process.
Jamie Benn’s goal in the second minute of the second period proved to be the game-winner. Parise led the U.S. with eight shots on goal. Suter took two shots on goal from the blue line.
Canada’s defense allowed 31 shots on goal, but they didn’t give the Americans many good scoring chances. Their best scoring chance came on the power play in the middle period when Parise redirected a shot in front of the crease, only to watch it sail wide.
The loss was far less dramatic than the 2010 overtime defeat in the gold-medal game was. The 2010 game featured Parise scoring the game-tying goal with 24 seconds left in regulation, only to be outdone when Sidney Crosby netted the winner in the eighth minute of overtime.
#TeamUSA will move on to play Finland in the bronze medal game tomorrow at 10am ET. #Sochi2014
— Team USA (@TeamUSA) February 21, 2014
