MILAN — After 48 hours of hectic Olympic hockey, with comebacks and overtime winners and golden goals pouring in nonstop at Santagiulia Arena, Team USA produced something long forgotten on Friday night:
A straightforward victory.
The Yanks went and dominated Slovakia in the semifinal round, relegating the tournament’s Cinderella tale to the bronze medal game with an emphatic 6-2 victory while setting up a matchup of Goliaths for the gold medal on Sunday.
One year after an epic clash for the 4 Nations Face-Off title ended in Connor McDavid’s overtime goal for Canada, Team USA will get the ultimate shot at redemption against its neighbors to the north.
A U.S.-Canada final is the game everybody wanted to see at the Olympics.
It is the most anticipated hockey game in a generation, maybe longer, and the Americans are one win away from joining the boys of Lake Placid as hockey royalty.
Friday was about as far as you could get from the Miracle on Ice, though.
It was a hockey superpower having its way with a Slovakia team that had come far further than anyone expected, but never had a chance in this one.
Since Team USA moved Jack Hughes up to the third line with Dylan Larkin and Tage Thompson midway through the quarterfinal against Sweden, it has formed a three-headed monster, which has dominated games.
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The only bad news of the night for the Americans was that Thompson left the game for what Team USA called “precautionary reasons” and did not play in the third period.
Those three players accounted for four of Team USA’s first five goals on Friday night, though two of them did come on the power play, and played up ice all night long.
“We thought [Hughes] was playing real well, and so we thought by moving him up and getting him more ice time, he could impact the game more,” coach Mike Sullivan said Friday morning. “It was just a decision on our part based on how Jack has played and we think he’s getting better with every game he’s played.”
Indeed, the Devils star has broken out for Team USA in this tournament after struggling through the 4 Nations.
He scored a beautiful goal to make it 3-0 at 12:14 of the second period on Friday, cutting to the middle of the ice before whipping in a wrist shot, then added another tally to make it 5-0 on the power play for good measure.
Juraj Slafkovsky broke up the shutout in the third period before Brady Tkachuk and Pavol Regenda each scored goals that were largely academic.
The Tampa/Florida feud did carry over late in the third when Erik Cernak and Matthew Tkachuk were both rung up with game misconducts — along with Brady Tkachuk for good measure — following an extended scrum.
Nineteen seconds after his 3-0 goal, Jack Eichel put one in to make it 4-0, prompt a loud “U-S-A” chant and break the game open, as Slovakia coach Vladimir Orszagh pulled goaltender Samuel Hlavaj, opting to save his No. 1 option for the bronze medal game against Finland Saturday.
Eichel had fed Thompson on the power play in the first period, setting up a one-timer that made it 2-0 from the left circle, the very same area from which Larkin opened the scoring from Zach Werenski off the rush 4:19 into the match.
While Team USA’s blowout wins earlier in the tournament belied some issues gurgling under the surface, there was little to complain about here.
The Americans took four penalties, something they can’t repeat against a Canadian power play that — you might have heard — is pretty good, though Team USA still has not let up a power-play goal in the Olympics.
Every line and every pair controlled play and did its job, while Connor Hellebuyck was rarely troubled in net.
After Canada had been pushed to the brink just a couple of hours earlier, and after five straight hockey games at the Olympics from which you couldn’t peel your eyes away, something like this was almost jarring.
Now, the hockey world will get what it descended on Milan to see.
