Parise Shines as USA Advances

Team USA advance into the Olympic Semifinals today after a hard fought and near upset from the Swiss Team. New Jersey Devil Zach Parise shined the brightest out of the American stars, getting the two goals the US had in the 2-0 victory.

The go-ahead goal came in the third period to vault the US ahead of Switzerland and putting an end to the goose eggs on the board. The goal occurred when the Americans got a power play after a tripping call went against the Swiss. After a pile up in front of the net, Parise would eventually get one past Jonas Hiller. That one goal would be all Ryan Miller would need and Team USA marched on to the win. Parise would seal the deal with an empty netter at the end of the game.

This game was really all about Jonas Hiller keeping the Swiss in the game. He made 42 saves and wrapped up his outstanding Olympic campaign up with another great game. On the other side, he may not have seen a lot of shots, but Ryan Miller rose to the occasion once more, doing exactly what was asked of him today. Had he let in a goal at any point, this could have gone down as one of the worst losses in US Hockey history.

Team USA will play in the semi’s against either Finland on Friday at 3:00 EST. Finland knocked Team USA out of the 2006 Winter games in the quarterfinals, lets hope we will have some sweet revenge!  GO USA!

Also, the US Women’s team faces off against their arch rival’s, Canada in the women’s gold medal game at 6:30 EST.

Outside of the United States, in Devils world, Patrik Elias’ and Ilya Kovalchuk’s Olympic experiences both came to an end last night. Elias’ Czech team were outplayd by Finnish goalie Mikka Kiprusoff and Kovalchuk and his Russian teammates were dominated by Team Canada.