Tonight the final game of the seven-game set between Team USA and the Russian
team was broadcast live from Dallas' Reunion Arena, and the teams skated to
a 1-1 tie (no overtime).  CIS wins the series, 4-2-1.
 
As the score would indicate, it was a defensive battle, with both teams
failing to get 20 shots on goal (totals were 12-10 USA after two).  Both goals
were scored early in the game.  After CIS scored early, USA's Steve Heinze
took a feed from Marty McInnis and fired a shot from the left circle past
CIS goalie Alexei Maryin at 5:27.  Ted Donato also assisted.
 
From my recollection, the USA pairings were:
 
Forwards:
Tim Sweeney-David Jensen-Clark Donatelli
Heinze-McInnis-Donato
Joe Sacco-Shawn McEachern-David Emma
Bill Guerin-C.J. Young-Jim Johannson
 
Defense was switched around a lot; players were:
Dave Tretowicz, Moe Mantha, Guy Gosselin, Bret Hedican, Dan Keczmer,
Tom Pederson, Keith Carney.
 
Mantha and Tretowicz were both hurt early in the game.  Mantha was checked
into the door at the end of the Russian bench, and the door (which was broken)
flew open and he ended up in the bench.  He went off but was to return later.
Almost immediately after, when play resumed, Hedican threw a heavy check into
a Russian player, but Tretowicz was right next to him and got nailed as the
Russian was falling.  Tretowicz went off with an apparent cut to the face, but
he too returned later with no apparent side effects.
 
Scott Gordon was in net and was very sharp despite not seeing a ton of shots.
He was very aggressive and came out often to cut down angles and take away
passing lanes.  He also got a lot of help from his defense (surprise!) which
was superb.  On one play, Gordon came out to the bottom of the right circle
and blocked an attempted pass, but he couldn't get back in net quickly enough
as the CIS player picked up the puck and skated behind the net, looking for
a trailer.  But the USA defense got back in a hurry and picked up every guy,
denying a pass until Gordon was back.  That was very nice to see.
 
On another play, Gordon blocked a shot and was down, leaving an open net to
any opposing player who could set up in front, but as the CIS player took
the puck along the boards and prepared to make the pass, Keczmer flew back
and crushed him into the boards.  I think Keczmer has been their best defenseman
from the 3-4 times I've seen Team USA.
 
USA used four forwards on the power play: Emma-McInnis-Donato with Sacco and
Gosselin at the points.  The second unit was Donatelli-Sweeney-(I forget)
with Carney and Pederson.  I was surprised not to see Heinze and McEachern
get a lot of power play time.  McEachern has been struggling for about a month
now, however; he wasn't much of a factor in the game.
 
The Russians' jerseys (new for this game?) read "Rossiya" with "C.I.S."
underneath; they were still red.
 
Bill Guerin doesn't look like he's much of a benefit to the club.  All I saw
him do was take cheap shots (I believe he leads the team in penalty minutes).
However, he did score two goals in that game with Canada that was on CBS.
 
This was the third game of the seven that USA held CIS under 20 shots, I
believe.  Their defense looked much-improved.  Donato said in between periods
that he believed they needed to play strong defense and hold the opponents
to few shots if they're to do well in Albertville.  This appears to be their
game plan, a significant change from early on when it looked like they were
going to try to win with speed.  Perhaps Peterson is gambling that his big
guns will be able to get the big goals to win if they can only hold the
opponents to a couple of goals.
 
We may have less to worry about than we originally thought as far as Team USA's
defense goes.  The problem now seems to be offense.  I wasn't too thrilled
with the way some of the line combinations worked, and I would be surprised
to see them stay this way.
 
Dallas apparently hosts an average of one hockey game a year, and you could
tell.  The crowd was great (early on they were oohing and ahhing for every
shot on goal, even from center ice), but the rink left something to be desired.
The Russians' bench door was broken, glass kept popping out all over the
place and had to be put back in (once by several fans since they couldn't
find the maintenance staff), and the neutral zone was HUGE since the guys who
painted the lines put them too close to the nets!  Not to mention that they
forgot to put down rubber mats on the walkway from the Russians' dressing room
to the ice and they had to walk across a long stretch of wood.
 
But it was still an entertaining game to see, and the fans got their money's
worth.  During the last few minutes, when you could tell both teams were
vying for that game-winner to end the series with a win, it sounded as if
the fans were watching a gold-medal game.
 
Oh yeah, announcers Don Chevrier and Mike Eruzione were joined during the
first period by Richard Dean Anderson ("MacGyver"; honorary captain of Team
USA) and Cheers' Kelsey Grammer.  Anderson was obviously excited to be
involved.  Grammer made me laugh when he was asked what his hockey background
was - "None."  You could tell. :-)
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Mike Machnik        [log in to unmask]       [log in to unmask]