Team USA to Skate For Gold

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Team USA is back in the Gold Medal Game. The Americans will go for it all on Sunday afternoon in a game that will crown the men's champion in ice hockey at the Olympics in Vancouver. 2:00 Central is the slated start time. The Americans will play the winner of Friday night's semifinal between Canada and Slovakia (8:30 Central start on CNBC).

Friday afternoon Team USA advanced past the semifinals by beating Finland, 6-1, on the heels of six first period goals. Blues defenseman Erik Johnson netted the third for his first point of the Olympic tournament.

Zach Parise scored the Americans' second goal on the power play as the New Jersey Devils' forward suddenly has three goals in his last two games after being held scoreless in the preliminary round.

Patrick Kane scored two goals on Team USA's second line, skating with Ryan Kessler and Dustin Brown. Netminder Ryan Miller allowed no goals for the second straight game and ultimately gave way to backup Tim Thomas. Thomas hadn't played a second of any of the previous four games so giving him some mop-up time to shake off some rust was probably a good idea on U-S head coach Ron Wilson's behalf.

Unrelated, Team USA alum Keith Tkachuk underwent surgery on a finger today by Dr. Charles Goldfarb of Barnes Jewish Hospital and is expected to miss 10 days, according to team President John Davidson.

TPC