Sore Point: U.S. Left Deflated
Just as the U.S. men’s hockey team hit the figurative wall of fatigue Wednesday, Latvian goaltender Arturs Irbe began to play, as he said during his prime in San Jose and Carolina, “like wall.”
Irbe made 39 saves and Mighty Duck defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh had two assists in his first game since being released from a substance-abuse program as Latvia, which has only two current NHL players, pressured a hurriedly assembled U.S. team on the first day of the tournament.
A fluky goal by Jordan Leopold that struck Irbe’s stick and flew over his back gave the U.S. a 3-3 tie, a result that deflated the Americans but inspired the Latvians to raise their sticks in triumph.
“When you look at paper, we don’t have much expectations,” said Ozolinsh, who suffered a knee injury on Nov. 27 and on Dec. 29 entered the substance-abuse and behavioral-health program operated by the NHL and the players’ association. He was cleared to play by the program’s doctors and arrived in Turin on Tuesday, five days after his countrymen.
“The first thing we must accomplish is get past the preliminary round,” Ozolinsh added. “This gives us confidence, a little bit, that we can play with the top teams.”
The U.S. team, which had only one day’s practice after a weather-delayed arrival, had some strong moments early in the game but faded in the second period and exposed goaltender John Grahame to an unconscionable number of two-on-ones and three-on-twos.
“We’re going to make some corrections,” Grahame said. “We’ve got to bear down on our power plays and bury our chances. We’ve got to capitalize on some of our opportunities and play solid defensively.”
King center Craig Conroy, who scored the second U.S. goal and won the faceoff that led to Leopold’s tying goal at 2:01 into the third period, said the result was no reason to panic. There’s no time to fret, anyway, because the U.S. is scheduled to play Kazakhstan today.
The Latvians, Conroy said, “have offense and they have skill. We can’t worry too much about this. I feel this team can win any time.... We just got away from our game plan and missed some assignments.”
Brian Gionta of the New Jersey Devils scored the first U.S. goal, from the high slot, at 9:44 of the first period. Conroy extended that to 2-0 at 10:38 when he faked two defenders for a quick shot that went in off the shaft of Irbe’s stick.
Latvia cut the U.S. lead to 2-1 at 13:15, when Aleksandrs Nizivijs lifted the rebound of a shot by Ozolinsh over a fallen Grahame. When the U.S. players sagged in the middle period, the Latvians pounced.
Atvars Tribuncovs tied the score when he took a pass from Ozolinsh and unleashed a shot that went past a screened Grahame at 15:04. Forty seconds later, Herberts Vasiljevs beat Grahame with a high shot to the glove side for a 3-2 edge, sending most of the crowd of 7,851 into a loud and joyful frenzy.
“When we got the lead, it was a surprise for the American team,” said Irbe, who started the season playing in the Latvian capital of Riga before moving to Salzburg, Austria.
The final U.S. goal, he said, “hit my stick and broke it. It almost kind of died. It almost stopped and went over my shoulder. I missed it. Too bad I didn’t have a tennis racket.”
Irbe, Latvia’s flag bearer at Friday’s opening ceremony, said the tie meant more to his team than its opponent.
“Hockey is one of the windows to the big world for our country,” he said. “We are slowly getting our place back in the European community. It is good that our flag is seen and our people are noticed and people see we can do some things pretty good.”
Ozolinsh, who had skated for three weeks before he was cleared to return, did many things well on Wednesday. He said he was “excited and a little bit nervous” about playing here and added, “There was a lot of pressure. That’s life. I expect it.”
He declined to discuss his treatment or the process that allowed him to play in the Olympics; he will receive follow-up care through the NHL/NHLPA program and said he expected to return to the Ducks after the Olympic break.
Although tying the U.S. was a great moment for his team, he hoped it wouldn’t be the only highlight.
“We got one point and we still have four games to go in this tournament to qualify for the next round,” he said.
