U.S. meets Finland in quarterfinal test

The Americans lost their final preliminary round game to Russia, 5-4.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
TURIN, Italy -- Team USA limped in while Finland kicked down the door.
Switzerland at first faltered, then surprised, just like Team Slovakia. Sweden did what was expected. And the favorites, Canada, Russia, and the Czech Republic -- they showed they can be beaten.
And so it went in the preliminary round of men's hockey in Turin 2006.
What it all means is that what was supposed to be a locked-up tournament, according to the experts of the hockey world, became a wide-open affair in the first wave of play. Now comes the second stage, the quarterfinals.
The field of 10 has been narrowed to eight, and after today, it will be cut to four. Then the winners will play in the semifinals Friday to determine who plays for what color medal.
U.S. vs. Finland, 11:30 a.m.
Finland is fast, aggressive on the puck in the offensive zone, creates offense off the rush, likes to go for the long-bomb pass, and is being backstopped by one very hot young goalie in Antero Niittymaki.
They come into the quarterfinals undefeated, have scored 19 goals, of which Teemu Selanne has six. They have given up only two goals.
Team USA finished fourth in Group B, and rightly so. They struggled to score goals early in the preliminaries and even after scoring four goals Tuesday night against Russia, they struggled to keep up the pace of the faster game, and struggled to adjust to the bigger international ice surface.
Canada vs. Russia, 2:30 p.m.
Team Canada is the defending champion and was the heavy favorite to win again. They are deep across the board at every position, and there is no good reason why they shouldn't be in the gold medal game.
But they have struggled to score goals, going scoreless for 128.11 minutes before getting three in the first period against the Czech Republic in a 3-2 win they barely held onto in the final period Tuesday.
'They do not look unbeatable, and the goaltending is not set. Both Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo have had suspicious moments.
The Russian Federation has an explosive offensive lineup with Ilya Kovalchuk, (four goals, one assist), Pavel Datsyuk, Maxim Afinogenov, Vitkor Kozlov, Alexei Kovalev, Maxim Sushinsky, and the NHL rookie phenom, Alexander Ovechkin. They can skate with anyone in the tournament and have a solid, experienced defense. The goaltending of Evgeni Nabokov has been good.