Off the Ice: Zach Parise

Friday, 02.26.2010 / 6:57 PM / All-Access Vancouver

By Dan Rosen - NHL.com Senior Writer

E-mail

VANCOUVER -- Zach Parise struggled to come up with the words to describe what this really feels like. Here he is in the Olympics wearing a Team USA sweater and he's going to play for the gold medal Sunday.

Seriously. It's not a joke.

Parise scored his third goal of the tournament and added an assist in Team USA's 6-1 blowout of Finland Friday at Canada Hockey Place. After a brief team meeting following the game, Parise stopped to chat with NHL.com. Here's what he said:

NHL.com: You're going for gold now. How does that sound and feel?

Parise: It's pretty unbelievable. It's tough to describe right now. Even sitting on the bench and watching the clock count down to your chance to win a gold, it's pretty surreal.

NHL.com: Did the last two periods feel longer than 40 minutes?

Parise: You know what, even when it was 6-0 in the second period, you're not comfortable. I'm serious, you're not because you never know. You just want the time to go, the clock to go as fast as it can. I think we played pretty conservative after that and we played pretty defensive. I don't think we had too many shots in the third period, but we did what we needed to do.

NHL.com: You opened up your scoring last game and then today you score and Patrick Kane gets two, so how big is it that not only are you going but he's now going too?

Parise: I think we need everybody going, and that's been a theme the whole tournament. We have had different guys scoring at different times and that's been the best part. We've done it as a group, and it seems like one line is not going then we have another line going. That's what has made it pretty easy for everybody.

Contact Dan Rosen at [email protected]

Off the Ice: Zach Parise

By Dan Rosen - NHL.com Senior Writer

AFFILIATE SITES

PLAYER SITES

RETIRED PLAYERS

COMMUNITY

TERMS

FUN STUFF

ABOUT