A Tie Can Work for U.S. and Russia

Eight days after the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team lit the flame to begin the Salt Lake City Games, the U.S. and Russia met at the E Center and rekindled memories of the “Miracle on Ice.”

It doesn’t take much to set off a storyline in these Olympics, and the first time the U.S. was host of an Olympic game against the core of the former Soviet Union had people talking--and hawking tickets--all over town.

It might have been too much to expect another uplifting moment, another defining sports event, another miracle.

Or even a winner and loser.

For this night, an excellent hockey game at the rollicking, sold-out E Center would have to suffice.

The result, a 2-2 tie, at least allowed the United States to continue a 21-game unbeaten streak (18-0-3) in Olympic games on U.S. land that dates to the 1932 Games in Lake Placid.

The United States and Russia also are tied in Pool D play with a 1-0-1 record. The winner of the four-team pool will have a No. 1 seeding in the playoff round.

“I don’t know why people are still coming back to that 1980,” Russian forward Alexei Kovalev said. “It’s in the past. It’s been along time ago. We can’t live what happened in the past, we have to live what happens in the present time ... today was a pretty exciting game.”

The United States trailed by a goal and had been outshot by almost 20 shots early in the third period, but battled back and tied the score on a goal by Brett Hull with 41/2 minutes left in regulation. There is no overtime in the Olympics until the playoff round.

Hull’s goal set off a flag-waving frenzy at the E Center.

“It’s such a feeling--like playoffs, but even more so--with the patriotism and the flags,” U.S. defenseman Chris Chelios said. “It’s touching to see. Hopefully we can give the fans something to cheer about like we did the first two games.”

The overwhelmingly pro-U.S. crowd included 1980 gold medalist Mike Eruzione and 2002 bronze medalists Chris Klug (snowboard) and Timothy Goebel (figure skating). A few Russian fans (including pairs figure skater Elena Berezhnaya) were mixed in. Both sides were cheering throughout the night.

“This is a little bit different brand of hockey,” U.S. goalie Mike Richter said of the international rules. “You’re going to see a lot of quality shots, and the scoring opportunities are going to be quality opportunities.”

Richter turned back enough of those quality shots to record 33 saves. Russia’s Nikolai Khabibulin had 23 saves.

The United States scored first during a two-man advantage in the second period. A Brian Leetch shot bounced off two defenders and toward the front of the net, where Keith Tkachuk popped it in. (Tkachuk would later limp off the ice near the end of the third period with what was initially described as a bruised thigh.)

The Russians dominated during the rest of the second period and tied the score on a power-play goal by Valeri Bure with less than three minutes remaining. They outshot the Americans, 17-4, in the second.

Russia took the lead two minutes into the third period. Ilya Kovalchuk, the talented rookie with the Atlanta Thrashers took a couple of whacks from just outside the crease, then Sergei Fedorov of the Detroit Red Wings finally got the puck past Richter.

Richter, the New York Rangers’ goalie, got the start one night after Nashville Predator Mike Dunham had a shutout in the opener.

The final result this time was simply a score, not a political statement or a clash of ideology, as it had been 22 years ago.

“I think it’s just another game,” U.S. defenseman Brian Rafalski said after the U.S. beat Finland to start Olympic play Friday night. “These guys have been in the NHL, so we’re not playing against guys we don’t know.

“They’re our allies now, almost. Economic partners, right?”

Too many world events happened.

The rise of Mikhail Gorbachev. Glasnost and perestroika. The fall of the Berlin Wall. The breakup of the Soviet Union. The end of the Cold War.

And, on a sports level, the influx of Eastern European players into NHL. Some of the players from both sides in Saturday night’s game are teammates during the NHL season, and in another nine days they’ll be teammates again. That didn’t mean they treated this game like a scrimmage or even an NHL game.

“It’s nerve-racking,” U.S. defenseman Brian Leetch said of the Olympic tension. “It’s not like, ‘Well we’ll get them next week, they’re coming to our place.’ Each shift has got that much more importance.”

With a start time of 11:30 p.m. Eastern time, no moments from this game would be seared in the memories of young children across the country the way Eruzione’s game-winning goal was a generation ago.

Player after player on the current Olympic team, which has 14 players who were 10 or younger in 1980, shared their recollections of that game and how it inspired them. Current children in the Midwest and Northeast--the vein of U.S. hockey players--won’t even be able to read about the results of this United States-Russia game in their morning newspapers. It ended past most deadlines in the Central and Eastern time zones.

Whose fault was the post-bedtime start time? NBC’s?

“We don’t make the schedule,” NBC Vice President of Communications Kevin Sullivan said.

That would be the domain of the International Olympic Committee, the Salt Lake Olympic Committee the International Ice Hockey Federation and the NHL.

Sullivan said one benefit of the later start time would be that the game could be seen in NBC in its entirety, without any cutaways to other events on the docket earlier Saturday night, such as short-track speedskating.

A portion of the United States’ 6-0 victory over Finland that aired on NBC from midnight to 1:30 a.m. Eastern time had an overnight rating of 5.1, which is very good for anything in that time slot (and great for hockey at any time).

In a conference call earlier in the week, NHL Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Jon Litner put this spin on the start time:

“The Saturday night game is in a very attractive ‘Saturday Night Live’ time slot, which is always very appealing, particularly for young adults.”

Even if this was a ready for prime time event.

And Lake Placid, 1980, is one chapter of the history book the Russians would love to skip.

*

Finland 8, Belarus 1--Teemu Selanne and Olli Jokinen scored two goals apiece as Finland roared back from a shutout loss to the United States.

Sami Kapanen, Tomi Kallio, Aki Berg and Mikko Eloranta also scored for Finland, which won the bronze medal in 1998 but is widely considered the weakest of the six teams that advanced automatically to the final round.