Team USA Celebration Party – Watch Team USA arrive at the Century-Plaza to celebrate with their friends and family.
Celebration Photos (courtesy Getty Images)
Alexi Salamone shows off his gold medal.
Team USA taking a bite out of gold.
Taylor Lipsett displays the red, white and blue.
Team USA sings the National Anthem.
Final score: Team USA 2 – Japan 0
I’ll be back soon with a full recap and more from Vancouver. It’s time to celebrate!
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Four minutes to go! Follow the rest on ParalympicSport.tv! Make sure to click on the white button on the right-hand side.
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Josh Pauls’ energy has been great tonight.
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5:53 Cash makes a couple of big saves. Hearts are pumping!
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6:10 PENALTIES OVER
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7:25 Tim Jones stopped on a partial breakaway.
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8:29 PENALTY USA’s Lipsett called for interference. 4×4 action for 25 seconds.
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10:04 PENALTY Japan’s Naohiko Ishida is called for roughing.
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10:40 Joe Howard denied on a great chance!
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11:55 Breakaway by Daisuke Uehara stopped by Cash! Great action by Japan.
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12:40 A long shot by Nikko Landeros sails wide off of Nagase’s blocker.
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13:19 Japan’s keeping the puck in the U.S. end, but are being kept to the outsides with no chances.
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GAME ON! 15 minutes in regulation left.
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If you don’t love a one-goal gold-medal game, you don’t love hockey.
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Less than three minutes until the start of the third period! The tension is mounting! USA 1-0.
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END OF PERIOD 2, USA 1-0. In the final three minutes, Team USA had three near goals, including a breakaway shot by Tim Jones that hit the right post! They don’t just hand out gold medals, folks…
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3:07. I must be off for media duties. Follow on ParalympicSport.tv!
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Japan’s looking for that stretch pass again, keeping a forward in the neutral zone. Team USA is trying to keep an eye on the roamer, but also needs to capitalize when it has the puck deep in Japan’s zone.
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4:19 Icing, Japan. Team USA nearly had a 3-on-1 rush, but the pass slid a bit long.
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Japan’s captain and best player, Takayuki Endo, has logged a ton of minutes tonight.
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8:00 Near breakaway by Daisuke Uehara, who was patrolling the neutral zone for just such an opportunity.
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Good physical play in this one. Japan is playing much tougher than last Tuesday.
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11:25 HUGE flurry in front of the Japanese net leads to a near goal by Taylor Lipsett.
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12:07 Great shift here by the White Line, who is bottling Japan in its own end.
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STEVE CASH SAVE
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13:20 PENALTY SHOT for Japan!
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HERE. WE. GO!
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Both teams back on the ice! One minute to puck drop for the second period!
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For those of you who are watching on ParalympicSport.tv and are only seeing Opening Ceremonies, try clicking on the big white button on the right-hand side of the screen with the 2010 Paralympic logo. It will activate ParalympicSport.tv’s live feed.
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Shots in that period were 5-1, USA.
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Japan generated some quality chances at the end of the period, but had a hard time getting the puck through traffic to the net. Still, Team USA will need to tighten up a bit to hold on to its lead through two more periods.
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END OF PERIOD, USA 1-0.
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Great shot by Satoru Sudo goes wide. I must be off… until next period!
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3:13 PENALTY: Joe Howard called for roughing.
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3:53 Alexi Salamone denied on a partial breakaway.
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4:13 Taylor Lipsett is very nearly sprung on a breakaway, but he lost a stick through the neutral zone and could not catch up to the pass.
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5:05 A shot by Japan goes wide. Their best chances of the night have come off of offensive-zone faceoffs.
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A good cycle by Team USA, and its defense avoids the temptation to jump too far into the play.
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7:43 A turnover nearly gives Salamone his second goal of the afternoon but his shot is blocked in tight.
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8:09 PENALTY OVER
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9:15 Taylor Chace fights off two attackers and clears the puck from along the wall. Great individual effort.
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Bubba Torres is one of Team USA’s fastest skaters, and he is very aggressive on the forecheck with his team on the penalty kill.
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10:16 PENALTY USA’s Andy Yohe off for elbowing.
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DESCRIPTION: A 15-second goal mouth scramble left just about everyone looking for a loose puck. Alexi Salamone finally located the puck and slid it into an open net with Misturu Nagase out of position.
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10:50 GOAL! Alexi Salamone! USA 1-0
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12:38 PENALTY Japan’s Eiji Misawa off for interference.
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Team USA is trying to keep its shifts short and manageable.
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14:15 Good open-ice hit by Tim Jones.
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As Welcome to the Jungle blares…. HERE… WE… GO!!!
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The teams are on the ice. We’re about to watch 2+ years of hard work in 45 minutes of action.
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Four minutes until puck drop! Refs are on the ice!
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At the last game, we heard from blog viewers that the ParalympicSport.tv broadcast was only working on Firefox, not on Internet Explorer. If you have a few minutes, make sure to download Firefox to ensure a quality signal.
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After Canada lost its semifinal game against Japan, tickets for the gold-medal game hit Craigslist hard. But this building is filling up quickly, and the atmosphere is electric. Fans in Hockey Canada jerseys are waving Japanese flags and learning the NI-PON! (JA-PAN!) chant from Japanese followers. This will be a road game for the men in red, white and blue.
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Just a quick note about today’s blog coverage. As part of my duties, I will be required to facilitate intermission and postgame interviews. Therefore, I will need to leave these blogging duties with around two minutes remaining in each period. Make sure to watch the game on ParalympicSport.tv for live coverage, and keep following here for insights and updates!
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Team USA is fired up. The players are banging their sticks in unison as they wait in the tunnel to take the ice for warm-ups.
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The teams are about to take the ice for warm-ups. Team USA is wearing its blues tonight, and is the home team due to its higher seed.
In yesterday’s action, Italy claimed a seventh-place finish with a 4-0 win over Sweden, the Czech Republic claimed a fifth-place finish with a 2-1 win over South Korea and Norway won the bronze, stunning Canada by scoring with 3.5 seconds remaining to win, 2-1. Canada, a gold-medal favorite coming into this year’s Paralympic tournament, leaves empty-handed.
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It’s Gold-Medal Saturday, and the U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey Team has reached the title game against Japan! The puck drops at 12 p.m. PDT, so check back here beginning at 11:30 a.m. PDT for live updates from the UBC Thunderbird Arena.
This afternoon’s game is also scheduled to be Webcast live at ParalympicSport.tv. Keep checking back here for insights and analysis throughout the game!
Finally, remember that the most recent updates will appear at the top of this post.