Team USA is cruising into the men’s hockey final.
Hours after Canada won a tense semifinal match over Finland at the Winter Games in Italy, the Americans locked in the all-North America final by smashing Slovakia 6-2.
Now, for the third time in four Games featuring NHLers, Canada and the U.S. will play for gold. Slovakia, meanwhile, will try to end the tournament on a high when they battle the Finns for bronze.
After surviving a quarterfinal scare versus Sweden — the Americans surrendered a 1-0 lead with 90 seconds to go, but came through in overtime — the potential was certainly there for the Stars and Stripes to overwhelm the Cinderella Slovaks.
And that’s exactly what happened.
Granted, the issue was at least somewhat in doubt halfway through the game, as the Slovaks — surprise winners of a preliminary-round group featuring Finland and Sweden — were trailing just 2-0. However, Jack Hughes — who continues to be one of America’s most dangerous skaters — scored a gorgeous goal to make it a 3-0 lead with 7:46 to go in the second. Nineteen seconds later, Jack Eichel deposited a fourth American tally that chased Slovakian goalie Samuel Hlavaj, who had done all he could to keep his club as close as possible to the powerhouse Americans.
From there, Team USA put two more pucks past Stanislav Skorvanek in the third period to round out the Red, White and Blue scoring.
The only point of potential concern for Team USA was the fact that Tage Thompson — who scored his third goal of the tournament in the win — did not return with the team after the second intermission for the final frame. His absence was described as “precautionary” on the broadcast, and head coach Mike Sullivan said after the game that Thompson is expected to play against Canada on Sunday.
Slovakia looked overmatched from the outset, as the Americans came at them with speed and physicality. Team USA opened the scoring just 4:19 into the night when Zach Werenski hit Dylan Larkin in full flight at the offensive blueline. Larkin tore into the Slovakian zone and let a shot go that ticked off defenceman Peter Ceresnak’s stick and into the net.
Slovakia did get two power-play opportunities in the first period, but couldn’t mount much of an attack. Still, it looked like they might emerge from the opening 20 minutes in a feel-good state thanks to some huge saves by Hlavaj. However, the Americans went to work on a man advantage with 58 seconds left in the frame and, sure enough, Thompson walloped his third of the tournament, crushing a one-timer from below the face-off dot off the right arm of Hlavaj and into the short side of the net for a 2-0 American advantage.
Slovakia got a couple more power-play chances early in the second frame, but again the U.S. kept them at bay. The path to an upset required some special-teams success and the Slovaks just weren’t able to generate Grade-A looks, even at five-on-four.
The dam finally broke when Jack Hughes grabbed the puck in the offensive zone, absolutely juked longtime NHLer and Slovak captain Tomas Tatar in the high slot and wired a shot past Hlavaj.
Moments later, the Tkachuk brothers — Matthew and Brady — went crashing into the end boards and kicked the puck back to Eichel, who swiped it into the net.
After the Slovak goalie change, Jack Hughes went back to work and scored his second of the night, this time on an American power play. Hughes now enters the gold medal game tied with Thompson, Auston Matthews — who had several great chances but couldn’t buy one versus the Slovaks — and Brady Tkachuk — who scored on a third-period breakaway — for the team lead with three goals.
With Thompson expected to be good to go for the final, the U.S. has certainly found something on its third line with Larkin between Thompson and Hughes. There’s a bit of everything on the unit, with Larkin’s sharp two-way game up the middle, to say nothing of Thompson’s all-world shot and hard-to-handle six-foot-six frame. Throw in Hughes’ outrageous shiftiness and ability to create offence at any moment and you’ve got a recipe for a lethal line.
Connor Hellebuyck wasn’t tested a whole lot while facing 15 shots, but he did have to do some work before the score got out of hand. Not long before Thompson scored to make it 2-0 in the first, Slovak centre Matus Sukel sent a shot through from the point that was tipped by Adam Liksa and made it through to the net. Hellebuyck turned it aside with all kinds of traffic in his face and the U.S. was able to clear the zone.
Not surprisingly, when Slovakia did beat Hellebuyck for their first goal, it was Montreal Canadiens star Juraj Slafkovsky scoring his fourth of the Olympics in the third period. Before the final buzzer, Pavol Regenda snuck in behind the U.S. defence and scored on a nice shot under the bar to close out the scoring.
Ultimately, the Americans endured precious few tense moments and will be on their toes, flying into Sunday morning’s (8:10 a.m. ET) gold medal showdown with Canada.
While all of North America will be fixated on that battle, Slovakia will be gunning for a second straight bronze medal when they take on the Finns — who won gold four years ago — at 2:40 p.m. ET on Saturday. After winning the country’s first-ever hockey medal at the 2022 Games, earning another third-place finish — this time versus the best of the best — would be huge for Slovakia.
