No Miracle This Time as U.S. Beats Russia

It wasn’t long ago that American victories over Soviet (and later Russian) hockey teams were so rare, they could only be explained as miracles.

No longer. The United States’ 5-2 rout of Russia in the World Cup of Hockey on Monday at Madison Square Garden, which gave the Americans a bye into the tournament semifinals Sunday, illustrated how drastically the international hockey landscape has changed.

Less than 48 hours after beating Canada, the Americans (2-0) handled Russia (1-1) with great intelligence and in-your-face defense, preventing the skillful Russians from creating their trademark precision passing sequences. And with a balanced, aggressive offense of its own, the U.S. team exerted pressure from the opening shift and never relented.

The last time an American team faced a team from the former Soviet Union at the Garden, the Soviets rolled, 10-3, in a pre-Olympic exhibition game on Feb. 9, 1980. That American team upset the Soviets at Lake Placid and went on to win the gold medal, the last major international triumph for the United States.

“They definitely play a different system [than in past years] but in the same instance, the U.S. system has come a long way and the product and talent have come a long way,” said Buffalo Sabre center Pat LaFontaine, who led the United States Monday with a goal and two assists. “We’ve proved to ourselves we can play with Canada and Russia, but we have to keep this momentum and stay positive and follow through on this. Our job is far from finished.”

Monday’s victory, in front of an enthusiastic sellout crowd of 18,200, ensured the U.S. team of first place in the North American group regardless of the outcome of its game against Slovakia (0-2) tonight.

Canada (2-1) will finish second and Russia will finish third. Sweden (3-0) won the European pool, with Finland (2-1) second and Germany (1-2) third.

In the quarterfinals, Canada will face Germany Thursday at Montreal and Finland will face Russia Friday at Ottawa. The Canada-Germany winner will play Sweden Saturday in Philadelphia, and the United States will face the Finland-Russia winner Sunday at Ottawa.

“I guess these are two of the biggest victories everybody is claiming we’ve ever had,” U.S. Coach Ron Wilson said. “I think [the Russians] got our best game and that’s why this wasn’t their best game. It’s not, ‘What’s wrong with Canada and Russia,’ it’s, ‘What’s right with the American game?’ ”

Much was right Monday, from Adam Deadmarsh’s swift conversion of a pass from LaFontaine 26 seconds into the game, to the goalmouth scramble that produced John LeClair’s goal at 7:08, to the marvelous individual effort by LaFontaine to steal the puck from Igor Larionov and lift a back-hander over Nikolai Khabibulin while the U.S. team was short-handed. That gave the Americans a 4-0 lead at 9:32 of the second period.

“Beating Canada and Russia are good stepping stones to earning respect, which I think we deserve, but they’re just steps,” said Keith Tkachuk of the United States. “We’ve got to go out and do everything possible to win it.”