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02/17/2006: ""Olympic Ice Hockey - Part 1" by Olympic Correspondent Paul Rivas"

At the Olympic break, the Detroit Red Wings are atop the NHL standings with a record of 39-13-5. Two days of Olympic Ice Hockey action have taken place since the NHL shut down (only for 14 days this time, thank the hockey gods the lock-out is over!) and today the men's teams have a break before continuing the fast-paced, hard hitting action we have seen so far. Many familiar faces are playing for their home countries. Canada and the USA's teams are completely made up of NHL players, the Czech Republic's roster is made up of all but one player currently on a NHL team (former L.A. Kings goalie Milan Hnilicka is the exception), Finland (before injuries) had a roster of all but two NHL players. Russia and Sweden are packed with the best the NHL has to offer but the big surprise team so far has been the Slovakian team.

The Slovakian team has a NHL filled defense led by the 6'9" Zdeno Chara (that is 6'9" without skates). L.A. Kings sensation Lubomir Visnovsky and quietly impressive rookie Andrej Meszaros of the Ottawa Senators who have helped the Slovaks to a 2-0 record and the top spot in Group B. With the likes of Marian Hossa, Pavol Demitra, Marian Gaborik, Peter Bondra, Miro Satan and rookie scoring machine Marek Svatos, few worried that the Slovakian team would have problems putting the puck in the net. The concern was could the combo of young Peter Budaj (backup goalie for the Colorado Avalanche) and former NHL goalie Jan Lasak keep the puck out of the net.

The big story from Group A at this point is Finland and the number 0. 0 as in the number of goals the Finns have had scored on them. Prior to the Olympic Games Finland’s top two goalies dropped out with injuries. Philadelphia's Antero Niittymaki has come in and stood tall with unknown Fredrik Norrena of Swedish Elite League's Linkoping getting the second back-to-back shutout. Teemu Selanne already has 4 goals and an assist to lead all scorers.

Tomorrow there are two big games: Slovakia vs. USA at 11 am pt and the Czech Republic vs. Finland at noon pt.

As for the women, the US and Canadian teams look destined to battle it out for the gold once again. Canada is 3-0 with an incredible 36 goals for and only 1 goal against while the USA team is also 3-0 and has scored 18 goals while allowing 3. Hayley Wickenheiser (the female Wayne Gretzky to some) is leading the scoring with 5 goals and 7 assists for Team Canada. If you get a chance, check out the the Gold Metal game at 11:30 am pt on Monday.