There will be another United States hockey team playing for gold in Sochi.
This time, the United States Paralympic sledge hockey team will take on the host country Saturday for the gold medal in the Olympics. The Americans got there by virtue of a 3-0 win over Canada in the semifinal. Canada was the top seed in the eight-team tournament, and they outscored the opposition 15-1 in three preliminary-round victories. With the loss, they will play Norway in the bronze-medal game Saturday. Russia defeated Norway 4-0 in the other semifinal.
The United States will have the chance to avenge a 2-1 group stage loss to Russia on Tuesday. They will also have the opportunity to become the first sledge hockey team to repeat as gold medalists at the Winter Paralympics, which has been contested since 1994. This will also be their fourth straight medal, following gold at Salt Lake ’02 and Vancouver ’10. At Torino ’06 they defeated Germany 4-3 for the bronze medal.
Forward Declan Farmer scored the first two American in the game, and has three goals and five points during the Paralympics. The 16-year-old also setup the third goal when he blocked a Canada shot, won a race for the puck and fed the puck to Josh Pauls who beat Canadian goalie Corbin Watson at 4:55 in the second period.
American goalie Steve Cash turned away all 11 Canada shots. Ten of his 11 saves came in the first 30 minutes of action, as the U.S. defense came up big and held Canada to a single shot in the final period.
The gold-medal game of the Paralympic Winter Games is Saturday at noon ET. You can view the game online or on television with TeamUSA.org streaming the game live. NBC will air the game in its entirety beginning at 1 p.m. ET
