TURIN, Italy – If it’s any consolation to you, we’re better that Kazakhstan. That’s not worth much, just like in the end there was no value in the U.S. Olympic hockey team’s insistence it was playing better than it was scoring. When it came down to the first game the Americans had to win, a quarterfinal matchup with Finland, they were bounced, 4-3, playing their worst.
“It was disappointing because we had told ourselves we were getting better every game and we were going to win the big one,” Doug Weight said. “We didn’t.
“The first 15-20 minutes we were very flat, not moving our feet, really didn’t do what we had done the whole tournament.”
If the effort didn’t stay constant, the games and results stayed remarkably true to the end. The Americans, 1-4-1, lost their fourth straight game by one goal, like they probably would have lost another four.
After a catatonic start that caused coach Peter Laviolette to angrily address the team to the bench – and Mike Modano afterward to accuse the coach of wasting a timeout – the Americans, on goals by Mike Knuble and Mathieu Schneider, rallied to their fourth tie in four games at 2-2.
Our guys never quit, but they never came through, either.
Olli Jokinen put a shortsider under Rick DiPietro’s armpit as the goalie squeezed against the post, then Jokinen scored from the slot off the goalie’s head and crossbar.
A desperate rally, fueled by Brian Gionta’s goal with omnipresent Erik Cole parked at Antero Niittymaki’s doorstep, fell short, as seemingly pre-ordained.
At least this time the Americans didn’t go out trashing the Olympic Village. Instead, Modano trashed the USA Hockey hierarchy, sounding more spoiled about creature comforts than concerned for the program’s direction.
“You come a long way and want things to run smooth behind the scenes,” the three-time Olympian said. “We basically were on our own as far as flights, tickets, something that should be taken care of so we don’t have to worry about it.
“Families being over here, it was a distraction. I’ve seen a lot of the faces with USA Hockey for a long time. It probably is time some names changed.
“The hockey part was OK. We aren’t that far away. We didn’t have much finish, but that’s what happens in tight games. Lack of discipline caught up to us at times. But I think we all thought we were better than this.”
Modano was benched for a lot of the third period, as Bill Guerin was for much of the game, as Keith Tkachuk and Derian Hatcher should have been since game one.
Seven holdovers from the 2002 silver-medal team survived to this one. But with the exception of remarkable 44-
year-old Chris Chelios, age did catch up to the Americans. So did the failure to select Ryan Miller, the best American goalie in the NHL this year; DiPietro struggled yesterday.
“Sometimes things fall together in a quick period of time and sometimes they don’t,” Modano said. “I think we had a good grasp on how we had to play. It wasn’t enough this time.”
Maybe there wasn’t enough leadership this time from Modano, who obviously had problems with Laviolette.
“We probably could have used [the timeout] at the end of the game to give some guys some rest,” Modano said.
They also could have used more than two goals for the tournament from him. The Americans went out for lack of timely scoring, their star’s comments being ill-timed, too.
—
Semifinal matchups
Tomorrow
Czech Republic vs. Sweden (10:35 a.m.)
Finland vs. Russia (3:05 p.m.)
—
YESTERDAY’S MEDALISTS
ALPINE SKIING
Women’s Slalom
GOLD: Anja Paerson, Sweden
SILVER: Nicole Hosp, Austria
BRONZE: Marlies Schild, Austria
CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING
Men’s Sprint
GOLD: Bjoern Lind, Sweden
SILVER: Roddy Darragon, France
BRONZE: Thobias Fredriksson, Sweden
WOMEN’S SPRINT
GOLD: Chandra Crawford, Canada
SILVER: Claudia Kuenzel, Germany
BRONZE: Alena Sidko, Russia
FREESTYLE SKIING
Women’s Aerials
GOLD: Evelyne Leu, Switzerland
SILVER: Li Nina, China
BRONZE: Alisa Camplin, Australia
SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING
Women’s 3,000 Relay
GOLD: South Korea (Byun Chun-sa, Choi Eun-kyung, Jeon Da-hye, Jin Sunyu, Kang Yun-mi)
SILVER: Canada (Alanna Kraus, Anouk Leblanc-Boucher, Amanda Overland, Kalyna Roberge, Tania Vicent)
BRONZE: Italy (Marta Capurso, Arianna Fontana, Katia Zini, Mara Zini)
SNOWBOARDING
Men’s Parallel Giant Slalom
GOLD: Philipp Schoch, Switzerland
SILVER: Simon Schoch, Switzerland
BRONZE: Siegfried Grabner, Austria
SPEED SKATING
Women’s 1,500
GOLD: Cindy Klassen, Canada
SILVER: Kristina Groves, Canada
BRONZE: Ireen Wust, Netherlands
ON TAP
Freestyle Skiing: Men’s Aerials: Jeret “Speedy” Peterson is the only American to make the finals.
—
MEDALS TABLE (after 65 medal events)
Nation G S B Tot
Germany 9 8 5 22
Austria 8 6 5 19
United States 7 7 4 18
Canada 5 8 5 18
Norway 2 8 8 18
Russia 7 3 6 16
Switzerland 4 3 4 11
Sweden 4 2 4 10
Italy 4 0 6 10
South Korea 4 3 1 8
France 3 2 3 8
China 1 3 4 8
Netherlands 2 2 3 7
Finland 0 3 3 6
Estonia 3 0 0 3
Croatia 1 2 0 3
Australia 1 0 1 2
Czech Republic 0 2 0 2
Ukraine 0 0 2 2
Britain 0 1 0 1
Bulgaria 0 1 0 1
Slovakia 0 1 0 1
Latvia 0 0 1 1