Friday, May 04, 2007

USA Earns Respect With Win

Team USA is looking a lot better than a little over a year ago. In Turin Italy, they just couldn't gel, couldn't get going. At the World Championship, it has been a different story. That might be held to the fact that this is a younger and grittier team than during the Olympics. With a win over the Slovaks in the qualifying round, the Americans are showing that they can contend for top spot.

Although Capitals' Cris Clark and Brian Potheir did not contribute, Milan Jurcina did get an assist for the Slovakian team. Phil Kessel did get on the scoreboard for Team USA as did Andrew Hutchinson, Brandon Boschenski and David Backes.

On this continent, Vancouver's season ended strangely after Roberto Luongo broke concentration raising his arm after a heavy Anaheim hit along the boards in second overtime led to a easy Duck tally that ended the series. Anaheim is the first team to survive the Conference Semifinals, finding themselves in the Western Conference Final for a second consecutive year.

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