Team USA Gains Gold Medal Game

The torment began almost immediately. The shot by Ryan Malone of the US into a wide-open net left Finland goalie Miikka Kiprusoff staring at the ceiling and shaking his head. What happened next in today's semifinal jolted Canada Hockey Place: The Americans scored four times on Kiprusoff in a six-goal first period, surging into the Olympic gold-medal game with a 6-1 rout of Finland.

"We haven't won anything yet," forward Zach Parise said. "We're getting better and that's the most important and rewarding thing." The U.S. will meet the Canada-Slovakia winner on Sunday, 50 years to the day after capturing gold in 1960 at Squaw Valley, Calif. It is the second time in three Olympics the American men will play for gold. They haven't claimed the top spot on the podium since the 1980 Miracle on Ice at Lake Placid, NY. (More 2010 Vancouver Olympics stories.)