Like Shooting Finns in a Barrel

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Ryan Malone and his U.S. teammates ripped Finland 6-1 in an Olympic hockey semifinal. They seek gold Sunday.

The U.S. men's hockey team advanced to the Olympic finals Friday, blowing out Finland 6-1 in a shocking display of offensive firepower for a team known more for solid goaltending and tight defense.

The rout had lots of hockey fans scratching their heads, except maybe U.S. general manager Brian Burke, who was charged with assembling a team of Americans capable of taking on the best hockey players in the world.

What Mr. Burke evidently knew, and some teams in this tournament didn't discover until it was too late, is that a six-game Olympic tournament can be won with a simple formula: great goaltending mixed with young, hungry players who hustle to every puck on the ice, play physically and leave their egos in the locker room.

First-period flurry

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The U.S. took control of Friday's game with six goals in the first 13 minutes of action. From top to bottom, Ryan Malone makes it 1-0 and Zach Parise scores on a power play to make it 2-0. Erik Johnson, Patrick Kane and Paul Stastny add goals for the Americans.

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Reuters

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Team USA has been swarming their opponents for over a week now, without it leading to flurries of goals. That could be because two of its games have been played against the hottest goaltender in the tournament—Switzerland's Jonas Hiller. The Americans scored four goals against Canada's Martin Brodeur, enough to cause Canada to bench the record-breaking veteran in favor of the younger Roberto Luongo. On Friday, the U.S. faced a possibly worn-out Miikka Kiprusoff.

Within minutes Friday, it was apparent that the older Finland team, which won the silver medal four years ago with many of the same NHL stars on the team now, wasn't equipped to handle the relentless pressure applied by the energetic Team USA. Finland winger Jere Lehtinen said he hadn't faced such a frenetic bunch since he was on the junior national team years ago. "They have a good four lines that can play all situations," he said after the game.

"They came into the game fully prepared to go on the attack and take care of any mistakes Finland would make," U.S. coach Ron Wilson said. Later, referring to Sunday's gold-medal match, he said, "I hope we haven't peaked two days too early."

Two minutes into the game, 22-year-old Phil Kessel darted down the ice after a puck that was going straight to Finland's goalie, Mr. Kiprusoff, who was skating out of the net. Some players in the NHL might have considered Mr. Kessel's hustle a waste of energy. But Mr. Kessel apparently rushed Mr. Kiprusoff, who got rid of the puck early. American Ryan Malone, also blazing down the ice, intercepted the pass and snapped it past the out-of-position Mr. Kiprusoff, putting the U.S. up 1-0. "We were socked after that," Finland coach Jukka Jalonen said.

The Americans never slowed down, continuing to skate with abandon, wearing down Finland and scoring five more goals in the process. Halfway through the first period, Finland replaced Mr. Kiprusoff with Niklas Backstrom of the NHL's Minnesota Wild.

It didn't matter. Mr. Backstrom barely got between the goalposts before he'd allowed two goals. Patrick Kane flicked in a wrist shot and Paul Stastny smacked one in, making the game 6-0 a mere 13 minutes into the game.

By the end of the first period, Finland had collapsed under the relentless U.S. effort. By the end of the second period, the U.S. had outshot Finland 22-11.

This American rout wasn't the result of fancy moves or sniper-like shots. The Americans simply refused to let a single loose puck go uncontested. They didn't conserve energy and at no point in the game did the U.S. give the Finns an inch.

To some extent, the Finns may have been too old to keep up with the Americans. Finland, like most smaller nations, has only a handful of elite players, and often those elite players develop in waves. Finland stars like Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu peaked in 2006, when the team won the silver medal. Now, they have begun to age together. Throughout the game Friday, Finland looked like it was struggling to skate as consistently hard as the U.S.

The Americans, though, are on the opposite track. Their older generation of players—guys like Mike Modano—were where Finland is now in the 2006 Turin Games. Four years later, a new wave of young players is coming up and just reaching maturity.

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The Americans also benefited from playing one less game than the Finns, a reward for beating Canada and gaining top seed in the tournament. Finland's goalie, Mr. Kiprusoff, is known in the NHL for being vulnerable when not given rest. He's already played 55 games this season for the Calgary Flames and had the extra game that the U.S.'s Ryan Miller didn't have. It didn't help Mr. Kiprusoff that he started the game off with a goal that looked to be caused by his poor decision-making. Mr. Kiprusoff, like many of the players on Finland, may have simply run out of gas.

The U.S. will play for the gold medal Sunday against the winner of the Canada-Slovakia semifinal game that hadn't ended by press time Friday. Team USA beat Canada earlier, 5-3, but a repeat would be difficult in an arena that on most days has been filled with loud hordes of Canadians. On Thursday, when Canada won the gold medal in women's hockey, the arena shook.

To win in the final, the American men will have to stick to their game plan of hard work, and Mr. Miller, their goalie, will have to play at least as well as he has all tournament. Luck would also help.

Write to Reed Albergotti at reed.albergotti@wsj.com and Ian Johnson at ian.johnson@wsj.com

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