Team USA to Play in Semifinal Round Friday

VANCOUVER, B.C. - Zach Parise (Prior Lake, Minn./New Jersey Devils/Univ. of North Dakota) scored his first two goals of the tournament and Ryan Miller (East Lansing, Mich./Buffalo Sabres/Michigan State Univ.) turned aside all 19 shots faced as the U.S. Olympic Men's Ice Hockey Team downed Switzerland, 2-0, here today in the quarterfinal round of the XXI Olympic Winter Games. With the victory, the U.S. improved to 4-0-0-0 (W-OTW-OTL-L) and will play in the semifinal round Friday (Feb. 26).

Team USA is less than a week away from getting a chance to show their stuff in Vancouver, Canada. When the brain trust put this team together they made sure the leadership group was strong. Rather than placing a lot of pressure on a player like Chris Drury, they will rely on a proven winner in Jamie Langenbrunner.

I started it off by covering the Flyers-Thrashers game. Jim Slater, an American, scored two goals to spearhead a 4-3 Atlanta comeback victory. Philadelphia has dominated Atlanta over the years to the tune of a 29-5-4 record against them. Atlanta rookie Evander Kane showed off the same form that he did in last year’s World Junior Championships, as he powered to the net and skated past Philly’s Chris Pronger to setup that last goal. That was a good start and then my mind wandered to the upcoming Olympics so I wanted to talk about the upcoming games in Vancouver.