VANCOUVER - A dozen days ago, Mike Babcock suggested that if everyone lived up to expectations, if everyone performed their best, we just might be on the verge of seeing one of the best hockey events ever.

It hasn't quite happened, but it may yet.

The stars and stripes and the maple leaf have all aligned just right, and now the Olympic hockey tournament is down to one game for gold between Canada and the United States on Sunday afternoon.

Canada earned the right to play in that game and take on that challenge with somewhat troubling 3-2 victory over Slovakia in the semi-finals Friday night, a game in which they were thoroughly in control but wound up with a white-knuckle landing when they allowed the two late goals, completely lost their swagger and just barely hung on.

"I thought we were good most of the game, but when we got scored on it was amazing how we suddenly couldn't make a pass, or take a shot," said Babcock. "We showed a lot of nerves at the end. We feel fortunate to have the opportunity to play for what we came here for."

It wasn't quite the way they wanted to get to the gold-medal game, of course, but they found a way to get there. Now they can make amends for the sweaty palm finish and the rough ride along the way.

The Americans, meantime, advanced with a convincing 6-1 rout of Finland earlier in the day to create a rematch of the 2002 finale in Salt Lake City.

There are five Canadians - Martin Brodeur, Scott Niedermayer, Chris Pronger and Jarome Iginla, along with executive director Steve Yzerman - who played in that 5-2 gold-medal winning game eight years ago, while there are two American (Brian Rafalski and Chris Drury) holdovers.

"I hope we haven't peaked two days early," said American coach Ron Wilson in the afternoon.

Let the gamesmanship begin.

"That team is on a roll, they crushed their opponent," said Babcock, "They must be the favourites going in."

The Americans will actually be the home team in the gold-medal game as they finished as the top seed and defeated Canada earlier in the tournament, 5-3, a game in which Canada held a wide edge in scoring chances, but the quality of goaltending was decidedly different at the two ends of the rink.

"We still are underdogs," said American winger Ryan Kesler earlier Friday. "Nobody is going to bet on us to win the gold."

Not so sure about that. The Americans, of course, have clung to their underdog status like Phil Kessel hangs on to the puck. But whatever works, right? They are somewhat of a surprise finalist given that they overhauled the roster from past years, had a major changing of the guard and are the youngest team in the tournament.

Anyway, that earlier loss to the Americans prompted a measure of distress across the country, but apparently not within the Team Canada dressing room. Nevermind the great event not materialzing, there were doubts Canada would even make it to the medal round. But no doubts within.

"We knew some people were panicking," said centre Jonathan Toews the other day. "But we were still very confident in ourselves and how we were playing."

Since then, the Canadians had continued to improve, thrashing the Germans, then dominating the Russians and Friday night they were looking good again until they stumbled and froze in the third period and allowed a three-goal lead to be reduced to one.

"The whole group became unraveled at the end," said Babcock.

The Canadians were not quite as robust all the time against the Slovaks as they were in the Russian game, but they had just as wide a territorial advantange in the first period and they took a 2-0 on goals by Patrick Marleau and Brendan Morrow, both deflections in front of the goal.

All along they have talked about traffic in front of the goal as being the best way to chill a hot goaltender. Well, it worked.

The Slovaks, playing the trap, stuck around in this one, but it seemed like it was over when Ryan Getzlaf backhanded in a rebound in the slot late in the second to create the big cushion. Problem is, in the third the Canadians slept on it for a time.

First, Lubomir Visnovsky squeezed a shot between Roberto Luongo and the post from along the goalline to open the scoring for the Slovaks midway through the third. It should have been stopped. Then four minutes later Luongo couldn't grab a wraparound and Michal Handzus tapped in the loose puck.

And the Canadians were life-and-death to nurse the lead home in a frenetic final few minutes, which included Luongo making a game-saver on Vancouver teammate Pavel Demitra in the final seconds.

That was the best part of the night for Luongo, who wasn't good on the two goals. When asked if he was concerned about his goaltending, Babcock basically dodged the question. And there really isn't anything to say about it now.

Like we said, this certainly wasn't the way Babcock and the Canadians wanted to get to the gold medal game, but they got there nonetheless. From Luongo on out they have an opportunity to make everyone forget the stumbles along the way by winning the big prize.