U.S. men to face old foe Russia

Los Angeles Times

Originally published Friday, February 22, 2002

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah -- The fact that the United States men's hockey team faces Russia in the semifinals exactly 22 years after their "Miracle on Ice" meeting isn't just coincidence. You might say it was preordained.

If the pairings were reseeded, Belarus' quarterfinal upset of Sweden that left the U.S. with the best record among active teams would have meant a U.S.-Belarus matchup. But the next round is determined by pairings set out by the International Ice Hockey Federation in April 1999. So Canada, the winner of game 30 of this tournament, gets Belarus, winner of game 31.

And it's the U.S. vs. Russia today. Time for the old adversaries to get it on again.

Russian Coach Slava Fetisov, who played on the 1980 Soviet Union team, approached U.S. Coach Herb Brooks at the Olympic village cafeteria Thursday and said, "Herb, 22 years ago we met. What do you think?"

"I said, 'I can't think that far back, Slava,' " Brooks said. "But he was thinking about it. He said, 'It's kind of eerie.' "

Like the 1980 meeting in Lake Placid, this game is for a shot at the gold-medal game, not the actual prize itself.

"At certain times in your career, you feel like it's the biggest game that you'll ever play in," U.S. forward Doug Weight said. "Whether it's a Game 7 in Edmonton or the first game of the Olympics in 1998. This is probably one of the biggest games you'll play in."

"We're going to try to keep our emotions in check. It's funny saying that after you have 25,000 hockey games under our belt in the NHL, plus playoffs. But we're all pretty nervous right now."

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