(LEKSAND) - Team USA defenseman Jack Johnson scored the power-play game-winner in OT to give his team the 3-2 win and entrance into the medal round.

Team USA will now play Finland on January 2nd. They lost earlier to Russia 5-0.

Team Canada shutout Slovakia 3-0. The Czechs beat Switzerland 4-2 to advance as well.

Mr. Rozelle wherever you are your mission is now complete. Yes Peter the NFL has come to the point where not only can any given team win on any given Sunday but they have. In fact there may be teams in the playoffs in two weeks that have lost more games then they have won. We could see the 14-2 Chicago Bears meeting a 7-9 New York Giants bunch in January, WOW!

Now that the Romo express has become derailed, (as coach Parcells had told the press weeks ago, he stills needs work) the new beast of the east is the high- flying Eagles. With a win this coming Sunday against the Falcons in the City of Brotherly Love believe it or not the Eagles are the NFC east champs. They trashed the Cowboys Sunday 23-7 in a game totally dominated by the Eagles. Jeff Garcia looks like he did in his early days in San Francisco, moving and finding his receivers on the run. Plus the running game and the D have come back to life. This team could be this year???s Steelers of ???05.

(Updated after Minnesota-Green Bay Thursday night game. Changes in bold and italics.)
December 22, 2006
For Week 16
AFC EAST DIVISION
New England can clinch division with:
1) NE win or tie, OR
2) NYJ loss or tie.
New England can clinch playoff berth with:
1) CIN/DEN tie.
AFC NORTH DIVISION
Baltimore has clinched division.
Cincinnati can clinch playoff berth with:
1) CIN win + BUF loss or tie + NYJ loss, OR
2) CIN win + BUF loss or tie + JAX loss.

(Philadelphia, PA) ??? Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson got the game-winning goal when Flyers defenseman Derian Hatcher lost the puck and he came charging in and shot it high into the back of the net to give Ottawa the 4-3 lead and eventual 6-3 win. With that goal the Swede picked up his 700th career point to finish off a three-point game.

???That was a mistake,??? said Hatcher. ???There was no other way to go about it. For whatever reason I thought I had a guy in the middle and then I hit him (Alfredsson) in the shin pad with the puck. It was a bad mistake.???

It???s nice to reach a milestone there is no question, especially when you win the game,??? said Alfredsson.

After Ottawa defenseman Anton Volchenkov got a tripping penalty Flyers forward Jeff Carter interfered with Ottawa goalie Martin Gerber (stopped 26 shots) to negate the power play (The Flyers were 0-5 and Ottawa was 2-5) early in the game. And that was a sign of things to come.

28 points plus 28 points equals 56 points. But Iverson plus 'Melo does not equal NBA title.

The reason is that some stars complement one another and some don't. It has often been said that an NBA team must boast two Hall of Famers to capture a championship. Tell that to the Pistons.

The Nuggets will be too much for some teams when J.R. Smith and Carmelo Anthony return to team with AI, provided the airport ever gets cleared off. Some nights, everything will click, which speaks more to matchups than extended brilliance. Some teams will simply not match up well with the Nuggets.

Most of those squads are not in the West.