It wasn't pretty by any notion but it was successful. The U.S. Men's Hockey team beat Switzerland 3-1, in an opening round game yesterday. Yes it wasn't as flashy as the 8-0 victory Canada put up against Norway, but for a team that boasts a lot of new faces to the Olympic games, it was a success. Bobby Ryan got the scoring started, with under a minute left in the first period, after firing a wrister from the slot past his teammate in Anaheim, Jonas Hiller. Ryan Mallone scored one power play goal and David Backes got team USA's third goal, with a beautiful end to end move to round out the scoring. Team USA showed spurts of dominating offensive capabilities. Goaltender Ryan Miller performed well, when he had to, with the lone Swiss goal coming on the power play.
Team USA will play Norway next on Thursday, in another tune up game, before they have their showdown with Canada on Sunday night. The States still have a lot of wrinkles to work out, but for a group of guys who had only skated together once since getting to Vancouver, there wasn't a lot to complain about.
The NBC T.V. coverage was also spot on, with Mike Emerick doing the commentating and Ed Olzyuck as the color guy they did a wonderful job. Add Pierre Mcquire between the glass and they covered every angle of the game you could want.
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