VANCOUVER, British Columbia  The Americans skated onto the Canada Hockey Place ice on Sunday with a sense of purpose. They wore 1960 replica sweaters, commemorating the United States’ first gold medal in Olympic hockey, 50 years ago at Squaw Valley. They knew where they stood and what might come to be.
When the Americans skated off the ice after an improbable 5-3 victory over Team Canada, they had claimed a spot in hockey lore. The last time the United States beat Canada in Olympic competition was in 1960. And Monday was the 30th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice.
Good karma? For the United States, perhaps.
For the Canadians, crises abound.
On Monday, Canada Coach Mike Babcock announced that Roberto Luongo of the Vancouver Canucks would replace Martin Brodeur, who allowed four American goals on 22 shots, for the remainder of the tournament. It was the first time Brodeur had been demoted since he became a regular with the Devils 16 seasons ago.
Babcock said there was poor coordination between Brodeur and his defensemen that led to turnovers  particularly in the first period  and a lack of big stops that prompted his decision.
“We’re in the winning business,” Babcock said. “And to win at any level you need momentum-changing saves.”
He said Luongo, unlike Brodeur, was a “great, big butterfly goalie,” who could provide important saves on screened shots.
As Babcock shook up his team, the United States General Manager, Brian Burke, was in no mood for basking in the buzz that had roared across the United States.
“I’m not happy with the way we’ve played to this point,” Burke said. “We have to play significantly better. We’re playing with about 10 guys carrying us. They don’t hand out any medals for finishing first in the preliminary round. Our center-ice play, we’ve made some glaring turnovers that have resulted in scoring chances. And our overall intensity for 60 minutes  for the first 10 minutes in the second period, I thought we were nonexistent.”
By finishing No. 1 in the 12-team field, the Americans helped themselves immensely. Their next opponent, on Wednesday, will be the winner of the Switzerland-Belarus qualifying match on Tuesday. The Canadians are forced to play a qualifying game on Tuesday against Germany. Should they win, they will face a daunting task against Russia, a game many believed would be the gold medal final.
“I’d still say we would be the underdogs on our lack of experience, certainly now that the tournament takes on a whole new meaning with single elimination,” Chris Drury said Monday. Drury scored his second goal of the Olympics against Canada and seems happier playing on this squad than with the Rangers. But, he conceded, “We do need to get a lot better.”
One of the Canadians’ problems is the age-old North American philosophy that you need to hit an opponent, anytime, anywhere  despite statistical evidence that shows teams that hit a lot lose as often as they win.
The edict of ”finishing your check” is what fueled Ryan Getzlaf, Rick Nash and several other Canadians to run at Americans after those players had passed the puck. They certainly hit the Americans hard, but by finishing their checks, they put themselves out of the play. That physicality, so full of sound and fury, signified nothing.
The Russians do not engage in that kind of random pummeling. Their body checks are thrown with purpose: to dislodge the puck as Alex Ovechkin did when he flattened Jaromir Jagr on Sunday in what will go down as one of the most effective hits in Olympic play. It led to the third Russian goal in a 4-2 victory.
Babcock will also have to do something about Sidney Crosby’s line. Crosby was dynamic, scoring once, but he was also minus 3. His linemate Nash spent a lot of time running down irrelevant Americans behind the play. The experiment of using Mike Richards on left wing did not yield results, and once again Babcock is casting about for a wing.
One cannot help noticing that Crosby looks diminished. He does not have his Pittsburgh Penguins teammate Evgeni Malkin with him, on the same line or waiting on the bench to provide the second half of that club’s one-two punch. Malkin looks powerful and dangerous for Russia, where he is paired with Ovechkin. But Crosby seems to be alone, and manageable.
But perhaps the perfect distillation of the Americans’ success so far is the image of goaltender Ryan Miller repeatedly thwarting Canadian shooters  especially his lunging glove save that robbed Jarome Iginla of what would have been the tying goal in the third period.
“That’s why we brought him,” Burke said. “We got outchanced, 2-1, last night. Our goaltender stole us a game. People can say that Canada didn’t play well. I don’t agree with that. They outchanced us. Except for the goaltending position, we didn’t deserve to win that game last night.”
The United States men's ice hockey team upset host country Canada, 5-3, in a preliminary round game on Sunday at the Winter Olympics. It is being called the Americans' biggest Olympic win since the 1980s "Miracle on Ice" victory over the former Soviet Union.

The game was only 41 seconds in when Brian Rafalski of Team USA fired a slap shot that deflected off Canadian star Sidney Crosby's stick and bounced past Canadian goalkeeper Martin Brodeur. 

The Canadians evened the game on a goal nearly nine minutes into the contest on Eric Staal's shot. The capacity crowd roared its approval and the stadium announcer was still giving the details of Staal's goal when Rafalski scored again.

Canada evened the game in the second period, but American Chris Drury put Team USA ahead again, 3-2. The Americans took a 4-2 lead on Jamie Langenbrunner's shot with just under 13 minutes left in the game.

 
Crosby cut the U.S. lead to 4-3 with about three minutes left. Canada pulled goalie Brodeur, adding an extra attacker in a desperate attempt to tie the contest. The hosts had clearly outplayed the Americans, with a shot advantage of 45-23. But U.S. goalie Ryan Miller, frustrated the Canadians all night, including their last-ditch attack.

Then with just 45 seconds left in the contest, American Ryan Kesler reached around his opponent to slap the final U.S. goal into the empty Canadian net, making it 5-3.

The game was just a preliminary round match, but in hockey-mad Canada, where the sport first originated, it was more than that. To lose to the United States in the Olympics on home soil was devastating.  

After the game, Canada fans — many in replicas of the team's red and white Maple Leaf jerseys — seemed stunned as they filed out of the Canada Hockey Place. Some Americans chanted "U-S-A, U-S-A!" But many Canadians, including Melissa Mazeman of Winnipeg, Manitoba, were still trying to realize what had happened.

"As soon as that first goal was scored within in the first minute, that did hurt, it was kind of crushing," she said. "But every U.S. player — or every U.S. fan I have seen on the street — I have said congratulations to."

Meanwhile, Canadian coach Mike Babcock has replaced Brodeur in the lineup, with Roberto Luongo of the Vancouver Canucks. Babcock said Brodeur's coordination with his defensemen that led to turnovers and four goals out of 22 American shot attempts. He also noted that Brodeur did not make many big saves.

Babcock said, "We’re in the winning business. And to win at any level you need momentum-changing saves."


Team USA fan David Loring of Colorado Springs, Colorado, one of a vastly outnumbered corps of fans wearing USA Hockey gear, gave goalkeeper Ryan Miller the credit for preserving the win.

"Team USA played really well tonight. I have to tell you, they got outplayed by Canada. We had some really good goalie work this evening.  Brodeur made some nice saves, but Miller really played well tonight. That was the difference I thought."


However, not all Americans are happy. The general manager of the U.S. men's team, Brian Burke, feels the team isn't playing at it's best. "I’m not happy with the way we’ve played to this point. We have to play significantly better. We’re playing with about 10 guys carrying us. They don’t hand out any medals for finishing first in the preliminary round," Burke said.

He continued saying, "Our center-ice play, we’ve made some glaring turnovers that have resulted in scoring chances. And our overall intensity for 60 minutes — for the first 10 minutes in the second period, I thought we were nonexistent."

Chris Drury agreed saying, "I’d still say we would be the underdogs on our lack of experience, certainly now that the tournament takes on a whole new meaning with single elimination. We do need to get a lot better."

The win is the United States' first Olympic win over Canada since the 1960 Winter Olympics. It also came one day short of the 30th anniversary of the U.S. hockey win over the former Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics' Miracle on Ice in Lake Placid.  

The victory assures the Americans an automatic quarterfinal berth. Canada could still make the round of eight, but must beat Germany in a play-in game Tuesday to reach the quarterfinals.