U.S., Russia Try to Keep Emotions in Check

The fact that the United States men’s hockey team faces Russia in the semifinals exactly 22 years after their “Miracle on Ice” meeting isn’t just coincidence. You might say it was preordained.

If the pairings were reseeded, Belarus’ quarterfinal upset of Sweden that left the U.S. with the best record among active teams would have meant a U.S.-Belarus matchup. But the next round is determined by pairings set out by the International Ice Hockey Federation in April 1999. So Canada, the winner of game 30 of this tournament, gets Belarus, winner of game 31.

And it’s the U.S. vs. Russia. Time for the old adversaries to get it on again.

Russian Coach Slava Fetisov, who played on the 1980 Soviet Union team, approached U.S. Coach Herb Brooks at the Olympic village cafeteria Thursday and said, “Herb, 22 years ago we met. What do you think?”

“I said, ‘I can’t think that far back, Slava,’” Brooks said. “But he was thinking about it. He said, ‘It’s kind of eerie.’”

Like the 1980 meeting in Lake Placid, this game is for a shot at the gold-medal game, not the actual prize itself. And Thursday’s sensational news conference, at which the Russians threatened to pull out of the Olympics because of perceived unfairness toward them, added an old-fashioned Cold War chill to these Games. Not that things are exactly the same, however.

For a snapshot of the changes, consider the image of Alexei Zhamnov, with a Nike swoosh on his Russian jersey, holding an autographed USA sweater given to him by Chicago Blackhawk teammate Phil Housley. Zhamnov had promised one to friends in Chicago.

The addition of NHL players has removed the kids-against-pros angle that made that 4-3 victory in 1980 even more compelling. Brooks even discounted the notion that Belarus’ victory over Sweden was similar.

“Sweden wasn’t the greatest hockey team in the world,” Brooks said. “And Belarus wasn’t a bunch of college kids playing them. You can’t even compare. It was a big upset, but not like that.”

One thing Brooks has tried to do, however, is to make his players feel college-age--or even younger--again. And one of the great aspects of this tournament is that it can invoke feelings in NHL players in the middle of February that normally aren’t felt until June.

“At certain times in your career, you feel like it’s the biggest game that you’ll ever play in,” U.S. forward Doug Weight said. “Whether it’s a Game 7 in Edmonton or the first game of the Olympics in 1998. We’ve all played in the playoffs the last four seasons. This is probably one of the biggest games you’ll play in.

“We’re going to try to keep our emotions in check. It’s funny saying that after you have 25,000 hockey games under our belt in the NHL, plus playoffs. But we’re all pretty nervous right now.”

Although the Soviet Union teams won the gold eight times from 1956-1992, Russia is something of an underdog.

“Russian people were so spoiled, they got used to seeing us win,” Zhamnov said. “If we win a gold medal, it’s going to be huge. People even celebrated [Wednesday] when we beat the Czechs. It’s big. People are missing the old Soviet teams. They want to see victories.”

Fans on both sides want to see the U.S. and Russia re-create the excitement of their meeting Saturday, which ended in a 2-2 tie.

“We heard a lot of compliments after the game that people really enjoyed that hockey game,” Russian forward Valeri Bure said. “That’s what it’s all about, it’s for us to play hard, for us to play the game, but as much [we’re] playing for the fans and the people who watch the game. When they like what they see, it’s a big compliment to us.”

U.S. forward John LeClair expects an even better effort than the first, when the teams were playing the second of back-to-back games after assembling in Salt Lake City two days earlier.

“I think we were a little tired,” LeClair said. “I think we’re going to be a better team when we play them tomorrow night.”

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Men’s Hockey

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