Olympic Gold Medal Hockey: Why Team USA Will Win

Team Canada's superstars, like Sidney Crosby, will have a tough time getting any pucks past Team USA's goaltender Ryan Miller. (AP Images)

It's Miller time. Crack open a cold one, press the the old rewind button to last Sunday at the Vancouver Olympics and you'll see that US goaltender Ryan Miller made 42 saves on 45 shots, sealing a 5-3 US victory over Canada.

In this tournament Miller leads all goaltenders with a 5-0 record and a 1.04 goals-against average. Miller's save percentage is .954 and he's got an entire team behind him that is 100 percent confident in his ability to deliver.

"He's been the best goalie here by far," said Team USA forward Zach Parise. "Even before this, he was the best goalie in the NHL coming in. I can't say I'm overly surprised, but he's picked it up another level since he's gotten here. There's no secret, he's outplaying all the other guys."

As for the rest of Team USA, they're jacked. They know the hometown crowd will be firing on all cylinders, but if they can get that all important first goal -- silence. And silence is golden, as they say.

Ask anyone who knows anything about hockey and they'll tell you that it's goals that wins hockey games. That begs the question, "Does Team USA have the star power that Team Canada has in the goal-scoring department?"

Team USA general manager Brian Burke stands by his decision not to send the NHL's top US goal scorers to the Games. Yes, there had to be a couple of 30-goal scorers, like Parise and Phil Kessel, but there also had to be some serious grinders like Dustin Brown and David Backes.

But back to Ryan Miller. The question on everyone's mind has to be, "Can he handle the pressure?"

"It's a big game, but it doesn't change the way we play. It's a hockey game, it's ice, it's a puck. It's the kind of stuff we've done for years," Miller said. "I just feel really comfortable that things are going to work out the way they're supposed to work out."

Miller's a cool customer and that bodes well in these parts.

If Team USA wins the gold medal in Vancouver, it will come 50 years (to the day) since their victory over Czechoslovakia at Squaw Valley.

Game time is 3 p.m. Eastern, noon Pacific, 1:00 p.m. Mountain. NBC and CTV will be broadcasting the gold medal game live.

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