VANCOUVER -- In the end the seconds stretched forever, and forever. Canada had spend much of these Olympic semi-finals cruising along, and had entered the third period with a 3-0 lead. All was peaceful. Then Slovakia scored a bad goal, then a goal off a bad play, and then it was like Canada had realized that they might lose. And so, they nearly did.
"I thought we were very good through most of the game, and when we got scored on it was amazing how we couldn't make a pass or a play from that point on," said Canada coach Mike Babcock after Canada's heart-tightening 3-2 win that set up a gold medal showdown Sunday with the United States. "I thought we really showed a lot of nerves ... our whole group came unraveled a little bit at the end."
Indeed. When asked before this game what Slovakia had to do to defeat Canada, Slovak pillar Zdeno Chara simply said, "Everything." They very nearly directed that much Canada's way, and only a late stand, capped by a desperate glove save by Roberto Luongo on Pavol Demitra, kept this thing from entering sudden death.
"They were throwing everything at the net -- pucks, bodies, everything," said Luongo, who made 19 saves. "And the puck stayed out."
It was the U.S. that handed Canada its lone loss at these Games, but by the time frame of this tournament that was an age ago. Now, it's one game, 60 minutes or more, for everything.
"We have a shot," said Babcock. "And to me, that's all you can ask for."
Perhaps two members of the Slovakian team would have made Team Canada -- Chara for sure, Marian Gaborik quite possibly -- and for a long time, it looked like Canada would suffocate them. The home team carried a 3-0 lead into the third period against a team that has trouble scoring, so you figured the lead was safe.
Canada was lulled to sleep in the third, however. With 8:25 to go, Lubomir Visnovsky sent a shot along the goal line that rattled in off Roberto Luongo's out-of-position pad. Then, with just under five minutes left, Michal Handzus cut the lead to 3-2 on a rebound goal after some poor defensive play by Patrice Bergeron, who played 1:38 through the first two periods but who was, for some reason, on the ice.
Suddenly, Canada was holding on for dear life, and the Slovaks were surrounding the Canadian net like it owed them money. Canada got lucky.
"We were part of very nice theatre," said Slovak coach Jan Filic. "We played with heart, with desire. We were not lucky enough at the end."
In the first semi-final, the Americans delivered something resembling a statement, strafing Finland for a mind-boggling six goals in the first 12:46 -- four against Miikka Kiprusoff, and two against Niklas Backstrom. The rest of the game was largely played just to satisfy the television obligations, and the United States won 6-1.
"I hope we haven't peaked two days early," said U.S. coach Ron Wilson. "We feel we're prepared and we've gotten better every game we've played."
So, too, had the Canadians, culminating in their 7-3 erasure of the once-mighty Russians on Wednesday. But Slovakia had subdued the Russian bear too, in a 2-1 shootout win in pool play. They toppled the defending gold medalists from Sweden, too.
Still, the atmosphere was ratcheted down from the tinderbox tension against Russia, even if that only meant the place got about as loud as several jet engines when Canada took a 1-0 lead on an artful tip by Patrick Marleau of a point shot from Shea Weber. It was a wrist shot, of course, because otherwise Marleau's stick would have been sliced in half.
A similarly delicate tip by Brendan Morrow of a Chris Pronger shot made it 2-0, and the Slovaks sat back and watched it happen. Slovakia's best scoring chance of the period might have come when Canada's Brent Seabrook accidentally sent a cross-ice pass straight at Luongo, who wasn't so surprised that he let it go in.
Slovakia's patience didn't do much more than suck the life from the building, which was restored late in the second period when Ryan Getzlaf backhanded in a bouncing rebound past Halak. Then came the slippage, and the comeback. They made it harder than was necessary.
Luongo, meanwhile, still has plenty left to prove. Norway and Germany were toothless, Russia was down 6-1 before they knew it, and Slovakia would never have gotten back into this game without that first goal. He was something close to heroic late, but the redefinition of Roberto Luongo has room left to unfold, to be sure.
Still, the single biggest reason Canada lost to the United States in pool play was the performance of Martin Brodeur, who hasn't played since. Canada outshot the Americans 45-22 in that game, and were outplayed at only one position. As U.S. general manager Brian Burke put it afterwards, "Look, you guys were all there. We got out-chanced two to one last night. Our goaltender stole us a game. That's what happened."
Well, Ryan Miller has remained superb -- "The best goalie always makes you nervous," said Babcock -- and Canada will need to be very good indeed to beat him. As the game wound down, the ritual chant began: "We want U-S-A! We want U-S-A!" and then, more directly, "We want gold! We want gold!"
The young and fast Americans are all that stands in their way, now.
"They won the world junior, and we won the women's, and here's the rubber, right here," said Babcock. "I think U.S. hockey is really comin'."
But Canadian hockey -- or at least, Canadian hockey fans -- will live or die with this result. After the Russia game, Babcock had said, "You want to do well because you're proud and you think hockey is Canada's game. Now, it's pretty obvious it's the world's game. But we still think it's ours and I'm a bit of a redneck so I like to think it's ours.
"In saying that, it's going to be one country's game this year. There's no guarantees. You've seen in all these games, there's a fine line. All we've done is set ourselves up with a chance."
They had their chance, all right. They have it still.
Photo: Roberto Luongo celebrates with Drew Doughty after Canada won the semifinal game between the Canada and Slovakia on Day 15 of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics at Canada Hockey Place on February 26, 2010 in Vancouver. Harry How/Getty Images
