Olympic Ice Hockey Semifinals - Canada vs Slovakia

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On Friday afternoon Canada and Slovakia will battle it out in the second of two semi-final games in the Men's Olympic Hockey tournament, the winner get a shot at gold, the loser, a shot at bronze. The puck drops at 6:30 pm PST, so let’s get right to it.

Canada rolled right through a Russian team that many thought were a lock to at least make it to the gold medal game. The 7-3 pounding silenced any questions that were raised about Team Canada after they needed a shootout to beat the Swiss and were then beaten by a young American squad in preliminary action, forcing them to play Germany in the Qualification round.

The loss forced the Canadians to make a move in goal as Martin Brodeur was badly out played by Ryan Miller. Since then, Roberto Luongo has been the man in net and the Canadians have outscored opponents 14-4 and are playing like gold medal favourites.

The momentum that Team Canada picked up from that win should carry right over into today’s game. Jarome Iginla, a veteran of the 2002 gold-medal victory in Salt Lake City, spoke of how important the win was for the boys, who described the monumental win on Wednesday night as a step,

"It was a huge game, an elimination game, but it didn't feel like the gold-medal game," he said.

"It's not as if we went back to our rooms, throwing our gloves around and celebrating. We know there's work left to be done."

It was Canada’s most complete game of the tournament. They finally looked like they had gelled and played like you expect Team Canada to play going after the Russians with wave after wave of fore-checking pressure. They took the Russians out of the game early, wearing them down with their physical play. Offensively they took the puck deep and were just too strong to contain. The Russians didn’t have an answer and the game was over before the first period was finished.  

Slovakia had to take the long route to the Semi-finals of the Men’s Olympic Hockey tournament as well. Like the Canadians, they needed a win in the Qualification Round for a shot at a medal. Slovakia took out Sweden, the defending Olympic champs, in a 4-3 classic. Sweden had the edge in play, but much the American’s win over Canada, it came down to goaltending. The Slovaks needed just 14 shots on Henrik Lundqvist for the win while Jaroslav Halak continued his MVP like tourney with 26 saves. Goaltending is going to be the story again tonight as Halak will have to have the game of his life if he wants to play for gold in 2010.  

Slovakia is a very strong opponent, and have been playing good hockey, having knocked off the Russians in this tournament as well. Given the fact that they have a red-hot goaltender in Jaroslav Halak and two of the NHL's premier scorers, Marian Gaborik and Marian Hossa, Slovakia could definitely make this thing interesting.