Brian Rolston and Doug Weight were part of a dominating attack for Team USA.

Team USA getting
its act together
By Phil Coffey | NHL.com
Feb. 16, 2006

TORINO, Italy -- Talking about their 4-1 victory over Kazakhstan Thursday night still elicited the odd grimace from Team USA players, but all admitted to feeling a lot better about their collective game after the win than after what was a disappointing 3-3 tie with Latvia Wednesday night.

Team USA built up a 3-0 first-period lead Thursday and then dominated the game in nearly every aspect, except on the scoreboard. Had the Americans gotten more of their shots on goal, and they out-shot Kazakhstan 36-12, the score could conceivably have reached double digits.

"We dominated," New Jersey Devils forward Brian Gionta said. "We had a lot of chances and only got four goals. The number of chances we had didn't show in the goals."

"We knew what we had to do," Team USA forward Mike Knuble said. "Overall, our skating was better. Still, we don't consider ourselves world-beaters right now. We're heading into a different phase of the tournament now and tonight we accomplished what we want to accomplish."

The men's tournament takes Friday off for a breather. For Team USA, that will include a much-needed practice session to further develop cohesion because the remaining three games in the preliminary round are potential dream crushers. The U.S. meets 2-0 Slovakia Saturday, then Sweden Sunday before finishing up the round-robin with a meeting against the Russians Tuesday.

In a word: Yikes!

But those are worries for another day for the Americans, who came out strong, just as they did in the opener against Latvia. The difference Thursday night was Team USA didn't take its foot off the gas pedal, continuing to pressure Kazakhstan all over the ice for the vast majority of the game.

Bill Guerin got things rolling for Team USA just 1:34 into the game, taking a pass from Chris Drury and beating Kazakhstan goalie Vitaly Kolesnik, a Colorado Avalanche prospect who played exceptionally well in the one-sided game. Kolesnik has played in seven games this season with the Avalanche, compiling a 3-3 record with a 3.29 goals-against average.

"Their goalie came up big," Team USA captain Chris Chelios said. "This could have been a 3-2 win instead of a 4-1 win."

Brian Rolston, who used his speed to great advantage all night, scored the second Team USA goal at 8:31, taking a pass from Doug Weight and beating Kolesnik from the left point on the power play.

Gionta scored his second goal of the Olympics at 16:50, also on the power play. Gionta deftly deflected a left-point shot from John-Michael Liles for the goal that was also assisted by Scott Gomez.

Team USA led the first period in shots by a 17-5 margin that grew to 30-9 after the scoreless second period.

Kazakhstan did itself no favors by continually taking penalties that allowed the Americans to back them deep in their own end and then pepper away at Kolesnik.

"We were shocked," Gionta said of the tie against Latvia. "We had to stick together and that's what we did tonight. We had to make sure to stay focused and get the puck. We were a little sharper tonight and we didn't take any chances."

But until Mike Modano scored at 11:53 of the third period, those scoring chances were not finding the back of the net.

Bill Guerin got Team USA on the board just 1:34 into Thursday's game versus Kazakhstan.

"We started getting too fancy," the always blunt Chelios said.

For Kazakhstan, aside from the play of Kolesnik, the lone bright spot was a third-period goal by Yevgeny Koreshkov that spoiled Rick DiPietro's bid for a shutout in his first Olympic start.

"It was tough," said Toronto Maple Leafs and Kazakhstan forward Nik Antropov. "They are all playing in the NHL. Compare our team to theirs. It's hard to compare them. It wasn't balanced. Their team is top five, we are fifteenth. It's tough.

"As you could see, our game in the third period was good. We weren't dominating, but we were also not overplaying. The problem was we had too many penalties. The Americans scored a few goals through (the) power play."

Kazakhstan has now dropped both of their games in the tournament, falling 7-2 to Sweden in the opener and now 4-1 to the U.S. The have to play Russia on Saturday, Slovakia on Sunday and Latvia on Tuesday.

"Everybody will learn from this game," Antropov said. "Our most concerning thing is the penalties. If we don't take as many we'll be all right."