Sochi 2014: TJ Oshie Leads US Men's Hockey to Thrilling Victory over Russia

Russia President Vladimir Putin’s face says it all. After all, the only gold medal that matters to Russia is men’s hockey. Well, the United States men’s hockey team defeated Russia 3-2 in a very dramatic and heart-stopping game that ended in a shootout.

Thanks to the 1980 Miracle on Ice, everyone looks forward to the USA vs. Russia hockey games in the Winter Olympics even though Russia is not as dominant, and 2014 is even sweeter because the games are in Sochi, Russia. The men did not let down America. There is no doubt goalie Jonathan Quick was the star of the game with TJ Oshie is close second.

The game was exciting from the first puck drop. A very physical first period did not have any scoring, but the second was a different story. Pavel Datsyuk scored for Russia at 9:15, which lit up the crowd. America started to drag with two penalties, but killed them with ease. Those kills motivated the team, forced Russia to play with more force and frustration. Russia ended up with two cross checking penalties and Cam Fowler scored on the power play at 16:34 to tie the game. It appeared the Americans would enter the third period with momentum, but Patrick Kane was called for hooking at 19:59.

Russia started the third period with a 1:59 power play.

However, the Americans were able to kill off the penalty and keep the game flowing their way. They took the lead with a power play goal by Joe Pavelski at 9:27, but once again, Datsyuk came up for Russia and tied it at 2-2 with his own power play goal at 12:44.

Fedor Tyutin scored the go ahead goal for Russia, but it was waived off after Quick’s net cam proved the net was coming out. It was still 2-2 and off to overtime. Kane almost finished it in OT, but Russia goalie Sergei Bobrovsky made a brilliant save.

Shootout.

After three rounds in a shoot out the team may use the same player and US coach Dan Blysma tapped Oshie, who is a shoot out expert. America used Oshie, James van Riemsdyk and Joe Pavelski in the first three and Oshie was the only one to score. Russia’s Ilya Kovalchuk beat Quick at the last second and forced more rounds. While Russia used two players, Oshie was the only American and he scored three goals.

When his third goal went in he immediately pointed to Quick, acknowledging the win belongs to the goalie.

This was just a preliminary game, but as mentioned before, hockey means the most to the home country. Other events force officials to use volunteers to fill the stadiums, but they did not have a problem with the hockey game. It was overflowing with Russians and Americans and the game dominated Twitter.