Team USA and the Czech Republic are playing live on Wednesday as the United States gets ready for the quarterfinals of the hockey tournament at the Winter Olympics and the matchup will be streaming online from NBC and comes as Russia lost and Canada will play the same time against Latvia and that could put a matchup of the teams in the semis.
The United States has been playing as good as anyone in the Olympics and they come in against the Czech Republic as the favorites and Canada comes in looking to win their second straight gold medal. The Canadian team and the United States can only meet in the semifinals after going to the gold medal game in Vancouver and that makes the Friday matchups even more intriguing. Sweden is already through to the next round after winning against Slovenia and they made it through after being the top seed heading into the quarters.
Canada plays against Latvia and that should be an easy matchup and this all comes after the home Russian team was defeated by Finland and now Sweden will matchup against that team and it comes after the Russians lost in controversial fashion to the US. Many have protested the game, but please, look what Russia did in 1972 and shut up about it already and clearly the team was not medal worthy if they are losing to Finland.
The hockey tournament is all about the top three teams in Sweden, Canada and the United States and the first two have won gold medals recently and that is what Team USA is looking for. The United States has done a good job in Sochi and they currently have 21 medals and seven of those are gold medals and the team would love nothing more than to add one on Russian soil. The team lost to Canada in what many say was the best game ever for a gold and now they are looking to get revenge this time around.
Jonathan Quick and the team ahead of him have played very well and he is getting the starting nod over Ryan Miller and he has allowed just three goals and was excellent in the shootout against Russia. The Canadians are going to start Carey Price in net and it comes after he opened the games for Team Canada, while Quick got two starts in the preliminary round and that included the win over Russia, while Price played in two games during that stretch as well.
Team USA comes in with momentum after winning big over Slovakia and the team ended up with seven goals and they have been one of the highest scoring in the Olympics and that will be tough to handle on Wednesday. The other matches have Canada and Latvia starting at 12 pm noon, while Sweden now will play Finland on Friday and the US Canada matchup is looming as the bronze medal game is Saturday and the gold medal game Sunday.
Check here for the United States and Czech Republic Live coverage.