U.S. to Travel Tough Road for Title

Despite a lack of consistent scoring from any player, the United States begins the quarterfinals of the World Hockey Championship as the only undefeated team.

Seeking its fourth medal in 40 years at the championships, the U.S. plays Slovakia in the first of today’s quarterfinals.

In other matchups, the Czech Republic, the defending world champion and Olympic gold medalist, plays Latvia; Canada faces Switzerland; and Finland meets Sweden.

No U.S. player is among the top 25 in total scoring or assists, and none ranks in the top 15 in goals. But the United States has given up a tournament-low seven goals. Damian Rhodes, who plays for the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers, is third in the tournament with a goals-against average of 2.00.

Rhodes’ backup, Robert Esche of the minor league Springfield Falcons, has a 0.50 goals-against average, but hasn’t played enough minutes to qualify for the rankings.

“We’ve got a challenge in Slovakia, that’s for sure,” said Vancouver Canuck forward Darby Hendrickson, making his fifth world championship appearance for the U.S.

“We’ve got to do the same things we’ve done since the start of the tournament. And that’s play hard. And count on Esche and Rhodes, because our goaltending has been big. But we’ve got to play solid defensively and when we get our chances, get hungry.”

The United States hasn’t won the gold at a world championships since 1960, and can boast of only two bronze medals since.

With few exceptions, the United States’ best players skipped the annual championship or couldn’t make it because their teams were still in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

As a result, the Americans ended up with 13 NHL players, and filled out the rest of the roster with minor league, college and European-league players.

Coach Lou Vairo, who worked behind the U.S. bench at the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo, can count on 10 players who previously competed at world championships.

Slovakia has seven NHL players, and went undefeated in the opening round, beating Austria and Italy before tying Finland.

In a tougher second round, the Slovakians beat Norway, 9-1, before losing to the Czech Republic and Canada.

With only four NHL players on the squad, the Czechs won all their opening-round games. Their only loss came against Finland in the second round.

The Czechs are a deep, experienced team with three Olympic players: Pavel Patera, Martin Prochazka and Jiri Dopita.

After a rough first round, Canada recorded solid victories over Finland (5-1) and Italy (6-0) to reach the quarterfinals.

It also has a better team now, having added Martin Lapointe, Larry Murphy and Kris Draper of the Detroit Red Wings, who were eliminated in the second round of the NHL playoffs.