By the time the puck drops in the men's hockey semifinal between the United States and Canada, both international squads will know who awaits the winner in the Gold medal match. Sweden and Finland will meet Friday at 6:30am, ET in the first final four match-up, paving the way for the highly anticipate showdown between 2010 finalist Team USA and Vancouver Olympics champion Canada. The United States pushed the Canadian powers to the limit in 2010 thanks to late heroics from this year's captain. Trailing 2-1 with under one minute remaining, American star Zach Parise knocked one through to send the game to overtime. Sidney Crosby's OT tally spoiled a potential championship moment for the United States however, but now that a berth in the 2014 final is on the line, Team USA is up for the challenge of taking down the historically strong Canadian national club.
“It's two teams that bring out the best in each other," Parise said. "We're going to have our hands full. We know it's going to be a great game. We're playing fast, scoring off the rush, scoring on the power play. I think the way they tried to design this team was with a lot of speed. I think that's really played to our advantage on the bigger rink. Our transition game and our mobile-D are moving the puck really well.”
Parise and the United States will undoubtedly need their quick puck skills to remain in top form against a Canadian team fully capable of capitalizing on opponent turnovers. Coming off a 2-1 victory over a talented Latvian team in the quarterfinals, Team Canada will surely lay it all on the line against their rivals from the north, but even though many players will go up against teammates from the NHL, USA star David Backes says now is not the time for friendship. Backes and American T.J. Oshie – who play their full-time hockey with the St. Louis Blues – will go straight up against NHL mates Jay Bouwmeester and Alex Pietrangelo as one of the 10 duos from the National Hockey League playing for either the United States and Canada.
“We're going to put our country's colors on and play our butts off, and when we return, will put the St. Louis Blues colors back on and rekindle any relationships we need to over a nice cold beverage if necessary," Backes said. "We're all out there representing our countries and we're not going to hold back because we play with a guy during the year. You're going to play hard and you're not going to leave anything out there”
The United States and Canada certainly won't leave anything behind, especially with a berth in the Gold Medal final on the line.
United States vs. Canada: DATE, TIME & VIEWING INFO
DATE: Friday, February 21
TIME: 12:00pm, ET
TV COVERAGE: NBC Sports Network
LIVE STREAM: CLICK HERE
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