SOCHI, March 15 (R-Sport) – The United States beat host nation Russia 1-0 in a physical final in Sochi on Saturday to retain the Paralympic sledge hockey title.
The U.S. came into the final as favorite but seemed at times to struggle with the vocal home crowd at the Shayba Arena and the hard-hitting game played by the Russians, who exceeded all expectations by winning silver in their first Paralympic appearance.
A Russian error on defense handed American forward Josh Sweeney the game-winning goal midway through the second period. He intercepted a hopeless pass from Russian defenseman Alexei Lysov, deked to fool goaltender Vladimir Kamantsev and fired the puck high into the top of the net.
"I got the puck from him, took it down and did a little fake, because that’s what you want to do when you’re going up against a goalie that good, and just put it in the net," Sweeney said. "This is my first gold medal and I just feel honored."
Against the backdrop of tension between the U.S. and Russia over the fate of the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine, the game was hard-fought but fair, and the Russian crowd cheered the U.S. team at the medal ceremony and received the gold medalists' anthem with respect.
"I was really surprised that the crowd cheered," Sweeney said. "Sometimes you don’t know what kind of reaction you’re going to get. Even in the U.S. they might not cheer if somebody else won, so it was awesome to be able to get a cheer from the crowd."
When the final buzzer sounded, the U.S. players headed for the crease and huddled around goaltender Steve Cash, 24, who earned his third shutout in Sochi. The dejected Russians comforted one another as the home fans shouted messages of support.
“The Americans were faster than us and more experienced, but we tried, we gave of ourselves, we fought to the end” said Lysov, whose error led to the decisive goal. "You saw it, one mistake practically decided everything, as happens in finals.”
He added of the Americans: “We knew they weren’t gods, they were people too and we could play against them.”
The U.S. victory comes as revenge following a 2-1 defeat to Russia in the preliminaries on a standout game from the acrobatic Kamantsev. The hockey tournament brings Russia its 70th medal of the Sochi Games, a Winter Paralympic record, and the host nation has now also won at least a silver medal in all five sports on the program in Sochi.
Several players on both sides in the gold medal game were military veterans who had lost legs in combat, with the Russian team featuring soldiers wounded in the country's restive North Caucasus and the U.S. roster including veterans of the conflict in Afghanistan.
The game revolved around tough battles for the puck in center ice, with the U.S. recording just four shots on goal against six for the Russians. The U.S. came under pressure on two Russian power-plays late in the second period and early in the third, but its penalty-killing unit was on form to keep the opposition at bay.
In the bronze medal game earlier in the day, Canada had little trouble on its way to a 3-0 win against Norway, which misses out on the medals in sledge hockey for the first time since the sport was introduced at the 1994 Paralympics.
Sledge hockey adapts the game of ice hockey for players with lower-limb disabilities, with some rule tweaks including the offence of teeing, a ban on hitting opponents head-on with the metal front of a sled. The sport is technically mixed-gender, although no female players competed at the Sochi Paralympics.
