The U.S. men’s hockey team took to the ice to ear-shattering approval in the 8,400-seat E Center Friday, one week shy of the 22-year anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice,” the last time the Winter Games were on U.S. soil.
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As in Lake Placid then, Utah Friday night featured hundreds of American flags and head-rattling chants of “U-S-A, U-S-A,” juicing the Yanks as they faced off against Finland in the three-game seeding round.
U.S. coach Herb Brooks started Mike Dunham in goal. Up front, Brooks originally indicated he would put Hawks winger and captain Tony Amonte with center Doug Weight of St. Louis and winger Bill Guerin of Boston after the way they lit up the 2001 All-Star Game. Brooks also talked about putting center Mike Modano of Dallas and winger Brett Hull of Detroit together from their days with the Stars.
But he decided to run out Modano between Guerin and Amonte, and Weight between Hull and Philadelphia winger John LeClair.
“It’s more of a gut feeling,” Brooks said. “Dougie Weight, being a left-hander, [makes for an easier pass to Hull on the right side].” “I don’t think they’re set, but who knows? You get on a roll, they might stay that way.”
Some people believe the Americans are a contender for the gold, including Teemu Selanne, the high-flying San Jose winger whose Finnish team drew the Yanks in the opening game.
“They have an unbelievable team,” Selanne said. “Them and Canada have great teams. They have the best teams on paper.
“But it doesn’t mean anything because the games will be different on the bigger ice, especially without the [center] red line.”
While the Americans and the Finns played late into the night, the first serious day of men’s hockey featured Blackhawks all over the place.
With center Alex Zhamnov and defenseman Boris Mironov each scoring goals, Russia opened play Friday with a 6-4 win over Belarus, the qualifier from the preliminary round.
Zhamnov, skating on a line with Pavel and Valeri Bure, corralled a Pavel Bure rebound near the far post, settled the puck and roofed it over Belarus goalie Sergei Shabanov in a three-goal Russian first period. This after Zhamnov hurt his left leg on the previous shift.
The Russians had a 3-1 lead after one period and made it 4-1 early in the second when they thought it would be a laugher. But all of a sudden, Belarus was back to within 4-3 and dominating the second period.
“After couple, three goals, we stopped playing,” Zhamnov said. “We felt like it would be an easy game. But you can’t do that in [the Olympics]. Everybody wants to win.”
The Russians started strong in the third period thanks to Mironov, who absolutely hammered a slap shot from the right side into the top far corner less than three minutes into the third period, a goal that would prove to be the difference.
In the next of three games at the E Center, Sweden ruined Canada 5-2. The Swedes rolled to a four-goal second period, sparked by a nifty passing play by Hawks center Michael Nylander, who cricled the net wide, cut across the slot and found Niklas Sundstrom in front.
Meanwhile defending gold medalist Czech Republic, with Hawks defenseman Jaroslav Spacek, defeated Germany 6-1.