Six or seven months ago U.S. forward Tony Amonte began composing
his list of the American players he would like to see in an
Olympic shoot-out: Doug Weight, Brett Hull, Mike Modano, Brian
Leetch and John LeClair. No Amonte? "No, I'm 0 for 2 in penalty
shots, and I missed one just before I came over," the
Blackhawks' Amonte said. "You know, I've been having dreams
about this stuff."
In the single-elimination round, which was to begin on
Wednesday, games that are tied after regulation go to a
10-minute sudden death overtime period (20 minutes in the gold
medal game) and then, if necessary, to a shoot-out, in which the
teams alternate in taking five penalty shots each. Sweden won
the 1994 gold medal in a shoot-out when Peter Forsberg scored on
an audacious move he had seen Sweden's Kent Nilsson use in the
1989 world championships. Forsberg almost went past the net
before one-handing a shot past Canadian goalie Corey Hirsch. The
Swedes promptly commemorated the goal with a postage stamp.
Last week U.S. coach Ron Wilson said he had drawn up a top 10
list from which he will choose his five shooters but wasn't
tipping his hand. "I'm not going to give a goaltender on another
team more time to prepare," he said. "I hear Patrick Roy's a
real student of the game, and I don't want to give him any
advantage."
The Canadians planned to rely on input from goalies Roy, Martin
Brodeur and Curtis Joseph to pick their shooters. "They face our
guys all the time," assistant coach Andy Murray said. "They
would probably know better than anyone who's the toughest to
handle on breakaways." Canada's Theo Fleury, who's 3 for 3 on
penalty shots during his NHL career, has been lobbying for a
spot. "I want it," he says. "Absolutely. I want to be the fifth
guy. I want that pressure."
Said Russian general manager Alexei Kasatonov, "We may have a
[list], but then in the tournament great players have a scorer's
walk. They move like, Oh, I'm going to score. That player will
be in the shoot-out for us."
Issue date: February 23, 1998
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