Of all the games played in the Olympic tournament so far, by far the most engaging match was yesterday's 3-1 win by the Czech Republic over Slovakia. It was a vintage performance for Jaromir Jagr, who scored the game winning goal and added an assist for the Czech team. Last night, he was determined to beat his former countrymen, and it showed in the way it was almost impossible for the Slovaks to take him off the puck.
Last night's game marked the third Olympic meeting between the two halves of the former Czechoslovakia. The Czechs are now 3-0. At the Lillehammer Gamers in 1994, the Czechs easily beat Slovakia, 7-1. In Turin in 2006, Slovakia was outstanding in pool play but was cut down by the Czechs 3-1 in the quarterfinals of the medal round.
Unlike previous Czech-Slovak games and most of the games in the tournament so far, there was no early feeling-out segment of the game in the first period. The two teams went right at each other from the drop of the opening puck, and it made for some entertaining hockey.
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As expected, Kimmo Timonen and defensive partner Sami Salo saw a lot of ice time in Finland's 5-1 win over Belarus yesterday. Timonen, who is one of the Lions' assistant captains, played 24:26. He had four shots on goal, was a plus-one and played air-tight defense in his own zone.
Meanwhile, ex-Flyers defensemen Lasse Kukkonen and Joni Pitkänen each tallied assists for the Finns. However, Lasse made a costly mistake in the opening seconds of the second period, leading directly to Sergei Kostitsyn's goal for Belarus. In the third period, Kukkonen made up for it with a nice low shot that Jarkko Ruutu deflected into the net.
Belarus' undoing yesterday was its inability to stay out of the penalty box. The Finns built a 2-0 lead in the first period on a pair of power play tallies (Olli Jokinen and Niklas Hagman's first of two goals). In the third period, with the Finns ahead 4-1, the Belarusians took three penalties, which ruined any slim chance of waging a comeback.
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Today's
Team Sweden blog at Versus.com takes a look at last night's 3-1 win over the Germans.
One thing that I did not mention in the blog was the infuriating mid-game switch of the broadcast between MSNBC and CNBC. When MSNBC signed off, we were "treated" to the interminable end to a USA-Switzerland curling match before the hockey broadcast resumed. I won't comment further on my feelings about it except to say that on the same day the Philadelphia Inquirer ran one of its snarky (and way off base) anti-hockey columns, it was yet another reminder of where hockey stands in the majority of mainstream media outlets in the USA.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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