Vancouver Now - Brodeur's mistakes sink Canadians

So it's on to Russia, now. Yes, there will be a date with Germany in between, but even in this most unpredictable Olympic hockey tournament, the odds Canada loses that game are the stuff of serious computers.

VANCOUVER -- So it's on to Russia, now. Yes, there will be a date with Germany in between, but even in this most unpredictable Olympic hockey tournament, the odds Canada loses that game are the stuff of serious computers.

After that, though, the odds are the stuff of a coin. If Canada had not lost to the United States to conclude group play last night -- lost 5-3 in a game that the Canadians dominated, to little end, for what felt like endless stretches -- then the road would be smoother, and the quarter-finals assured.

Instead, Canada's goaltender was outplayed, and the Americans played without fear, and now it's Russia in the quarters. Which in Torino, if you remember, was how the ship began to sink.

"We've just chosen a longer route to where we want to go," said Canada coach Mike Babcock. "And a more difficult one."

Indeed. The Russians haven't been uniformly terrifying in this tournament, strafing Latvia, losing to Slovakia in a shootout, and outlasting the Czechs here on Sunday. But Canada has crushed Norway, been life and death against Switzerland, and lost to this American underdog. With, it should be said, great goaltending, since Ryan Miller stopped 42 shots.

"Best goalie in the world," said U.S. defenceman Jack Johnson. "He was the reason that we won that game."

Canada's Martin Brodeur, meanwhile, was one of the reasons Canada lost it. His defence wasn't stellar, true, but Brodeur took unnecessary risks, made some baffling decisions, and paid for it, dearly. Brodeur, when his career is done, may be considered the greatest goaltender of all time. Sunday night, he wasn't.

"Obviously tonight was a night where we would have liked to have been better in that area," said Babcock, who said he would review the film and decided whether or not to start Roberto Luongo against Germany on Tuesday. Frankly, it seems like the obvious decision.

"We're still alive," said a drained-looking Brodeur, who stopped 18 of 22 shots. "We're throwing 45 shots at these goalies, and they're making stops -- forward, backward, sideways. Eventually, if we keep doing these right things offensively, we'll be more successful."

Eventually is a word that doesn't quite fit. The elimination games begin Tuesday, and they only stop for Canada with a loss. And Brodeur found the heart of this -- his team has only scored five goals in two games against NHL goaltenders, in part because other teams' goaltenders are stealing games, or in the case of Switzerland's Jonas Hiller, coming close. Brodeur made some terrific saves in this game, but he was the second-best guy on the ice.

It was a wildly partisan atmosphere, with Canada Hockey Place smothered in red and white, but the fever broke early, when the United States scored 41 seconds into the game on a Brian Rafalski point shot that deflected in off Sidney Crosby's stick.

Canada would tie it for all of 22 seconds. After an Eric Staal goal, Brodeur boldly tried to bat a shoot-in out of the air. It went straight to Rafalski, who slid a puck under Brodeur's sprawling pads. Canada tied it again on a rebound goal by Dany Heatley, and looked clearly superior for long stretches. But they never got the lead.

And then Brodeur made a split-second decision that may have ended his tournament, and eventually, Canada's. With the puck rattling around in the slot late in the period, he dove at it, trying to clear it with his stick. It was a high-risk play. It was dangerous. He missed.

A few seconds later Dan Boyle was trying to play goal, and Chris Drury, the American warhorse and Miller's old teammate, was scoring the go-ahead goal. As Miller said, "Memories, huh?"

And in the third, Canada took bad penalties, looked uncertain, couldn't pull it together, and allowed an American power-play goal. The inevitable all-out assault closed the gap to 4-3 on a goal by Crosby -- who, along with Rick Nash, was a minus-3 on the night -- but it started too late.

Still, Canada had chance after chance, only Miller was the equal to all of them. And Ryan Kesler, who had said the day before that he hated Canada -- and who, for the record, guaranteed a win over Canada back in 2009 -- ended it with an empty-net goal.

"They were hyped up as one of the greatest teams ever assembled, but we're a confident team," said Johnson. "We knew that we could win."

The U.S. hadn't beaten Canada in a men's Olympic hockey game since 1960, when the Americans won their first Olympic hockey gold in Squaw Valley. And Josh Sacco, the child YouTube sensation who memorized and delivered the Herb Brooks speech from the movie Miracle, reprised the speech for the Americans during a team dinner Saturday.

This, however, was not a miracle, any more than Slovakia defeating Russia was a miracle. No, this was Olympic hockey. And at that, we can lose to anybody. No, this was not a game that Canada had to win. No, this isn't over.

But there's rough ice ahead, to be sure. Rough ice, and maybe worse.

Photo: Canada's goalkeeper Martin Brodeur (R) misses a shot by USA's defender Brian Rafalski during the Men's preliminary Ice Hockey match at the Winter Olympic games in Vancouver's Canada Hockey Place on February 21, 2010. LUIS ACOSTA/AFP/Getty Images

Brodeur's mistakes sink Canadians

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