Los Angeles Times
TURIN, Italy -- No smarts, no fire, no luck.No good. Yankees go home.After Finland sent the United States packing from the Olympics with a 4-3 victory Wednesday, the Finns weren’t sure whether to mock the Americans or rip them.“We can beat anybody we play at this level,’’ Teemu Selanne said, “and we didn’t even have to play that well tonight.’’While the Women’s Team could only salvage a bronze medal after being upset in the semifinal game by underdog Sweeden, the American men lost their last four games here, beating only Kazakhstan. On a night they faced elimination, they didn’t do anything consistently, except throw elbows and act up with their sticks.Scott Gomez drew a 10-minute misconduct, Derian Hatcher drew a double minor for high-sticking so wickedly that he bloodied Selanne’s mouth and knocked out three of his teeth, and Chris Chelios drew boos when he argued Hatcher’s penalty with the referee. The U.S. had 30 penalty minutes.“If it would have been an NHL game, we would have been playing on the power play all night,’’ Finland’s Olli Jokinen said. “It’s the quarterfinals of the Olympics, so they didn’t call everything.’’Jokinen scored twice as Finland (6-0) advanced to the semifinals, two victories from its first gold medal.The Americans won silver four years ago in Salt Lake City. They won once in six games here.U.S. General Manager Don Waddell would not concede that the Olympics properly reflected America’s standing in the hockey world, since all four losses were by one goal.“We’re out of the tournament, but it’s not like something we have to blow up and start over,’’ Waddell said.The U.S. did not distinguish itself on defense. The Finns led, 2-0, after 12 minutes, with Ville Peltonen poking the first goal between the legs of U.S. goaltender Rick DiPietro and Sami Salo adding a short-handed goal.The Finns scored their third goal when Hatcher picked up a glove he had lost -- in the middle of a Finland power play, no less -- and Jokinen shot a second before Hatcher could get back to him. The U.S. could attribute the final Finnish goal to bad luck. DiPietro stopped Jokinen’s shot, but the rebound flew into the air and caromed off the goaltender’s back and into the net.The U.S. never led but did tie the score once, at 2-2, on Matthieu Schneider’s power-play goal 1:29 into the second period. The Americans put the Finns on a power play 74 seconds later and on a two-man advantage 26 seconds after that, for the first of two occasions in the period. Jokinen scored both of his goals on the power play.“The other team was disciplined. We weren’t,’’ U.S. and King forward Craig Conroy said. “You give the other team a five-on-three twice, and you shoot yourself in the foot.’’With the Finns protecting a two-goal lead, the U.S. outshot Finland 16-3 in the third period. With 4:27 to play, Chris Drury shoved the puck toward the net as he fell, and Brian Gionta tipped it in for the final U.S. goal.“We played a little desperate in the third period,’’ Gionta said. “We didn’t play with that desperation in the first and second period.’’Indeed, U.S. Coach Peter Laviolette called time out 10 minutes into the first period, for that very reason.“We needed to play with a bit more urgency and energy than we did in the first 40 minutes,’’ he said.That’s a reasonable concern in, say, the last game of a five-city NHL trip in March. But how could this happen in an elimination game at the OIympics?“I don’t know how to explain it,’’ Gionta said. “We definitely came out flat. It’s disappointing. We knew what was on the line.‘’It was our sixth game in eight days, and that’s a lot of games. But that’s no excuse when it comes to an elimination game.”Every quarterfinal team was playing its sixth game in eight days.Selanne, his lips still caked with blood after the game, said he was ‘’disappointed” by Hatcher’s hit. Hatcher did not speak with reporters after the game. Selanne, the Mighty Ducks’ star, did not miss a shift.‘’Of course I’m a little disappointed,” said Selanne. ‘’I lost three teeth, but that’s a little sacrifice to win a medal. You can always get new teeth.”
