‘94 Winter Olympic Games / Lillehammer : U.S. Comes Back to Tie France, 4-4 : Hockey: Two goals in the third period make up for two earlier replay calls <i> a</i> gainst the Americans.

They saw their 4-4 tie with France as a form of justice, that by scoring two late and improbable goals against goaltender Petri Ylonen on Sunday, they were rewarded for their tenacity and granted retribution for calls that had gone against them.

Yet no one on the U.S. Olympic hockey team acknowledged how lucky it was that Ylonen fanned on Peter Laviolette’s 60-foot flip shot with 8:37 to play in their tournament opener, or how doubly blessed they were when Ylonen misjudged Brian Rolston’s wrist shot from deep on the left side with 6:02 to play.

Tenacious? Maybe. A lesser team might have given up after a short-handed breakaway by Pierrick Maia put France ahead, 4-2, at 7:48 of the third period before 8,145 at Hakon Hall.

Nervous, tentative and utterly ineffective on seven consecutive power plays? Absolutely.

Without Ylonen’s shaky play, the U.S. team, seeded sixth in the 12-team field, would be near the bottom of its group. Thanks to Ylonen, the U.S. stands in a cluster of four teams tied for second behind Group B leader Canada.

“I guess he was letting in goals he should have let in in the first and second period,” Rolston said of Ylonen. “That goalie, I take my hat off to him. He played a great game in the first two periods. You definitely question yourself when you dominate the first two periods and you’re not ahead. You definitely shake your head.”

Said defenseman Brett Hauer, whose holding penalty with 1:56 to play made the final minutes tense: “People ask me how upset and disappointed we are. You’ve got to realize we were two goals down. We’re not jumping up and down, but we showed a lot of character to come back and get the tie.

“I think we played a good game. At times we’re going to get running around. This is a huge ice surface and European teams are good at holding onto the puck and delaying it and chipping it in. . . . We fought through the tough replay decisions, whether right or wrong, and we showed a lot of character.”

They needed character and resilience to pull even with the 10th-seeded French team, which had only 14 shots on Mike Dunham compared to 32 at Ylonen. They also needed resilience to overcome their disappointment when an apparent goal by Peter Ciavaglia was disallowed at 8:22 of the second period.

Referee Marko Lepaus of Finland, after consulting replays, ruled Ciavaglia used his right foot to direct a shot by Ted Crowley into the net, waving off a goal that would have given the United States a 3-1 lead. France, which had benefited from a replay on its first goal--a shot by Christophe Ville that bounced off Frank Saunier’s skate--tied the score in the second period and surged ahead in the third.

“To come from behind as we did, from being down two goals, was somewhat of a moral victory for our young team,” U.S. Coach Tim Taylor said. “For the most part, we played the kind of game we wanted to play. We had a lot of pressure in the French end. Unfortunately, we were ineffective on the power play, and that was our downfall tonight. Five on five we had a huge edge in shots and chances.”

At 5:04 of the first period, John Lilley converted Mark Beaufait’s pass-out from behind the net. France pulled even at 15:16, but the United States regained the lead when Peter Ferraro’s shot dribbled through Ylonen’s pads.

Hauer’s turnover in the neutral zone led to France’s second goal, at 18:07 of the second period. Franck Pajonkowski broke away from Hauer and Ferraro for a shot that ticked off Dunham’s pad.

“I should have had that one and the third one,” Dunham said of Banjamin Agnel’s wrist shot at 2:36 of the third period. “It’s tough to get into the game when they have only four shots in the first period. I felt like I was back at (the University of) Maine, where I’d get only five, six, seven shots a period because we were down at the other end.”

Maia’s shorthanded goal from the right circle let Dunham and the other U.S. players know they were in a tougher game than they had expected even though they had played a 4-4 tie with France on Feb. 5 in a pre-Olympic tournament in Rouen.

“We have to take the positive out of it,” Dunham said. “I know I feel a lot better now with one game behind me. You can prepare all you want, but I finally got out there and realized what was going on and what was at stake and I was a little nervous. It was a game I was playing not to lose.

“We know we’re a good team and we should have won tonight. They played a solid game, but I think if we keep playing the way we did offensively, we’ll be all right.”