4-year wait ends for U.S. hockey

Memory of gold-medal game loss against Canada lingers for men’s team

2/21/2014

SOCHI, Russia — While 13 of his future Team USA players were in the midst of the most epic battle of their hockey-playing lives in 2010, Dan Bylsma sat on a folding chair in a jam-packed bar north of Pittsburgh, cheering like a fan for his country to bring home gold.

Then all Bylsma could do was watch along with the rest of America as Phil Kessel’s overtime shot clanged off the crossbar, missing victory in Vancouver by sheer inches. Minutes later, the puck popped out of a scrum in the U.S. zone and onto the stick of none other than Sidney Crosby.

“He got to the dot, and I started getting up,” Bylsma said. “I kind of had a feeling that once he got to the dot, it might find the back of the net, which it did. I felt the same disappointment as everyone else in that bar. I can’t say I felt happy for Sid.”

Bylsma’s thoughts immediately turned to 2014. The Americans would have to wait four years to get another shot at the Canadians in the Olympics, but it was clear during their 3-2 overtime defeat in the gold-medal game that Team USA was making up ground fast on its neighbor to the north.

That night Bylsma, then in his first full season as coach of the Penguins, never could have known that he would be the man calling the shots for the Americans in the Sochi Winter Games. But he was the guy Team USA general manager David Poile picked to lead this collection of the country’s top talent.

It was never going to be easy for an American team on the wider international ice surface, but the path to a gold medal seemed more difficult than ever in Sochi. They had to play the Russians in the second game on their home soil, and they passed that test with a thrilling 3-2 shootout victory Saturday. They played their best game yet Wednesday in the quarterfinals, beating the Czech Republic 5-2.

Now with the Americans facing Canada at noon today in a semifinal game, they get the matchup they have been thinking about for what has seemed like forever. The winner will go on to play for gold Sunday against the winner of the other semifinal between Sweden and Finland. The losers will play Saturday for bronze.

“We didn’t know when it was going to come semifinal or final. But we got the game we wanted,” Bylsma said of facing Canada.

He was asked to explain why Team USA wanted Canada so badly. His answer came not with words but with an intense nodding of the head and a clinched grin. He let his players who were there that night in 2010 try to explain it.

Such as Zach Parise, captain of this team, who scored a goal with 24 seconds left that sent the game to overtime. Parise had not watched the replay of the game until a couple of weeks ago when he happened to see it on TV.

“Flashbacks,” Parise said. “Goose bumps. It brought you back to that moment when guys were thinking, ‘We have a shot at this.’ I’m sure that’s the same for all of us when we tied that game up.”

Bylsma was asked what he would do if he were Canada coach Mike Babcock to get Crosby going. Bylsma laughed. “I haven’t seen Sidney Crosby in 12 days,” he said.

“You’re going to see him tomorrow. How would you fix it?” asked a reporter.

“I’m not fixing anything,” Bylsma said.

The Block News Alliance consists of The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. J. Brady McCollough is a reporter for the Post-Gazette.