It wasn’t always pretty, and although things looked bleak for Canada after a tough loss to the US last week, they will get their shot at a gold medal after all. After jumping out to an early 3-0 lead over Slovakia in their semi-final matchup on Friday, the Canadians had to withstand a late surge from the pesky Slovaks to advance to a rematch of their marquee matchup with Team USA.
If Slovakia was to have any chance against the bigger, deeper and more talented Canadians, they needed to get another great performance from goalie Jaroslav Halak. They got just that, as Halak looked nearly unbeatable for the opening ten minutes. Not until the 13th minute of the first, when Patrick Marleau tipped in a wrist shot from Shea Weber at the point were the Canadians able to beat the young goalie from the Montreal Canadiens. Marleau planted himself right in Halak’s line of sight about 3 feet into the slot, and redirected Weber’s high wrister at the last second, giving Halak no chance to make the save. A couple minutes later, the same formula worked again for Canada, as big Brenden Morrow tipped in a flip shot from Chris Pronger to put Canada up 2-0.
It was a nice play from Ryan Getzlaf on the half boards that set up Canada’s 2nd goal, as he tipped a loose puck through his legs before nudging it on to Pronger. Getzlaf got a goal of his own late in the 2nd, as he took the position in the slot, and roofed a backhander over Halak as he fell to his knees on a Canadian powerplay. At the time, it seemed like nothing more than icing on the cake, as Canada seemed to have the game in hand, but it turned out to be the game winner, as they came to life in the 3rd.
After being outshot 21-9 in the first two periods, Slovakia outshot Canada 12-7 in the 3rd, and got good results. Lubomir Visnovsky got a lucky bounce when his centering try caromed in off of Roberto Luongo’s pad and in. A couple minutes later, Michal Handzus batted in a puck out of midair to pull Slovakia within one, setting up a frantic five minutes. Pavol Demitra had a virtually wide open net with under 20 seconds to play, but Luongo somehow got a piece of his glove on it, directing it, and Slovakia’s chances for gold, over the bar and out of harm’s way.
Slovakia’s loss sets up a bronze medal matchup with the gritty Finns, but the game everyone will be watching will be Sunday afternoon’s gold medal contest between Canada and Team USA.