Olympic Pool Update (Day 3, Feb 16)

Grant's team finally lifted off from a single point at the start of play, thanks to a decent American effort against the Slovaks in the early game, which went for us last night.  Chris Bourque scored both goals for the States, giving him a 3-point night in a 2-1 win, evening up their record in the tournament to 1-0-1-0.  Grant was in dire need of those points, as everyone was starting to get away from him early on, but that at least got his team back in reach of the pack.

The Olympic Athletes from Russia finally showed their... true colours? No, they can't do that, they're not allowed to have their flag at the games. No, that probably wasn't the right way to go, but they did finally show up to the tournament, thumping Slovenia, 8-2, bringing their record back up to .500 as well.  So, with eight goals on the score sheet, there were plenty of points to be had.  Neil was the big winner after this game, as he raced to the top of the standings, now with 14 points, thanks to Nikita Gusev, Sergei Andronov, Ilya Kabulkov and Alexander Barabanov, who scored the eventual winning goal.

Kirill Kaprizov scored a hat-trick for Don's team, which kept the pace with Neil's side, while Ilya Kovalchuk had a 3-point night for Stuart's team as well.

The Finns continue to look pretty strong, taking care of Norway early this morning, 5-1, and it was another good game for Don's team.  Don zipped past Neil's team with a good collection of points from Sami Lepisto and Petri Kontiola from Finland and getting credit from the Norwegian goal, scored by Patrick Thoresen.

Finnish youngster Eeli Tolvanen popped another 2 goals, including the winner, for another 3-point night and he has the early votes for tournament MVP, with 8 points in the pool.  He accounts for most of Chris' 13 points in the pool, so far.

Finally, the Swedes snuck past the Germans, 1-0, in a low-scoring affair, which probably had the favourites on edge for the better part of this game.  Sweden scored at the 2-minute mark of the 1st period and held on for dear life, as Germany pelted their net with 28 shots, but Jhonas Enroth stood tall for the shutout.  No goalie points though, so there's that.

Viktor Stalberg scored the only goal, giving him a 2-point effort in this one, giving Stuart the top dog in this game.

So, with three days now in the books, Don leads the pool with 18 points and he has a 3-point lead on Neil's team and a 4-point lead on Chris' team.  It'll be a busy night tonight, including Canada taking on the Czechs in the 8pm MT start tonight, so we'll all get to see the boys play, if we so chose.