Today at 12:00 p.m. ET, Canada and the United States faceoff in the men's ice hockey semifinals live from the Bolshoy Ice Dome in Sochi as part of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. The game can be live streamed for free here.
The stakes are slightly less high than when these two teams met in the gold medal game at the 2010 Sochi Games, however it is still a very important game as the winner will go on and have the chance to leave with a gold medal and at the very least silver, while the loser has the daunting thought of leaving with bronze as its best-case-scenario or possibly nothing at all.
The winner of this game takes on Sweden Sunday in the gold medal game.
Canada defeated the United States in overtime in 2010 off of a goal by Sidney Crosby that saw the host Canadians leave with the gold medal while the U.S. settled for silver. Canada looks to compete for its second consecutive gold medal while the United States has had four long years to let the 2010 loss marinate and will be poised for some revenge.
The defending gold medal winners haven't had the easiest road to the semifinals as the team has had a few close encounters throughout this tournament, including narrowly escaping an upset at the hands of Latvia with a 2-1 win in the quarterfinals on Wednesday that saw defenseman Shea Weber of the Nashville Predators notch the game-winner with a late power play goal.
"Obviously, we play against them in North America, so we're familiar with those guys," Weber, who plays alongside Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty for Canada, told the IIHF website about the Americans. "It's going to be a great game. They've played a great Olympic tournament so far, and it's going to be exciting."
The Canadians lost John Tavares (New York Islanders) to a season-ending injury in their last game and he will be replaced by Matt Duchene of the Colorado Avalanche.
Canada is full of talent which starts on the top line with captain Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who has a league-leading 78 points through 58 games off of 28 goals and an NHL-best 50 assists.
The U.S. has only trailed once thus far in the tournament and will be looking to continue their scoring binge as the team has 19 non-shootout goals in the Olympics thus far through four games. The unbeaten Americans fell behind to Canada in Vancouver and will be looking to avoid playing from behind in Russia.
"I mean it's a nice chance for some redemption," said Minnesota Wild forward Zach Parise, who scored the last-minute goal to force overtime in 2010, according to NHL.com. "It's not going to be an easy game, we know how good they are. The game when these two teams meet, it brings out the best in everyone and it always makes for a good game. We know how hard it's going to be. We have to make sure we're ready to play."
Parise, the U.S. captain, has 36 points in 44 games off of 19 goals and 17 assists this season.
The U.S. will once again go with Los Angeles Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick for the fifth straight game while the Canadians will turn to Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens. U.S. goalie Ryan Miller (Buffalo Sabres) and Canadian goalie Roberto Luongo (Vancouver Canucks) each started the gold medal game against each other four years ago, but will both be backups today.
Quick is 16-13-2 through 32 games for the Kings with a 2.18 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage while Price is 26-17-5 in 48 games for the Canadiens with a 2.33 GAA and a .925 save percentage.
A gold medal game against Sweden hangs in the balance when the puck drops on Canada and the United States at the Bolshoy Ice Dome in Russia as part of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
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