The Hockey Stop

Germany beat the United States in the opener of the World Championship before an international ice hockey record crowd of 77,803 on Friday. Of course, only one member of the American team was on the ice for the Vancouver Olympics in February, but still a big win for Germany.

Here is the Reuters story:

GELSENKIRCHEN, Germany, May 7 (Reuters) - Germany took 21 seconds of overtime to score the winner to beat United States 2-1 in the opening match of the world championship in front of a world record ice hockey crowd of 77,803 on Friday.

Felix Schuetz flicked the puck into the net soon after the start of the five-minute extra session to prompt a huge roar from the home fans at Schalke 04 soccer club's ground to give Germany a surprise victory.

The hosts kept a clean sheet against the Americans in the first period mainly thanks to goaltender Dennis Endras.

The U.S., fielding only one member of the silver-medal winning team from February's Vancouver Olympics, went behind early in the second period when Michael Wolf grabbed Marcel Muller's rebound to beat netminder Scott Clemmensen.

The Americans then upped the pressure and were repeatedly denied by Endras.

Ray Carter finally broke through midway through the third period before Schuetz grabbed the winner.

Team Canada defeated the Americans 3-2 in overtime to take the Gold Medal in the final event at Canada Place before Sunday's closing ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

Sidney Crosby scored the game winner against goalie Ryan Miller, setting off an emotional celebration amongst the thousands of red-and-white clad maple leaf flag waving Canadians in the stands and streets of Vancouver.

The United States tied the game with 24 seconds left off a shot by Zach Parise, which sent the game into the extra session.

The 14th Gold Medal for Canada in these games set an all-time Olympics record.

The USA's total medal count of 37 led all countries and also set an Olympics record for most medals. The Americans topped Germany's 36 in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

In the consolation game Finland defeated Slovakia 5-3 in a come-from-behind victory for the Bronze Medal.

UPDATE: Not surprisingly, Sunday's epic game was the most-watched hockey game in the United States since the Gold Medal game in 1980 when the USA beat Finland after the "Miracle on Ice" against the Soviet Union. Sunday's game drew an average viewership of 27.6 million and a rating of 15.2. The peak of 34.8 million surpassed the 32.8 million viewers who watched the 1980 game.

The game was also not surprisingly the most-watched TV broadcast in Canadian history.

Buffalo, home of tournament MVP Ryan Miller, was the top U.S. market.

On the eve of the 30th anniversary of the greatest United States Olympics hockey victory -- the 1980 Miracle on Ice team that defeated the Soviets in Lake Placid -- the USA defeated Canada 5-3 in Vancouver, B.C.

While Brian Rafalski scored two goals and had an assist, the hero of the game was netminder Ryan Miller. The Buffalo Sabres goaltender turned away 42 shots in a magnificent performance.

The win was by far the biggest upset since the Miracle on Ice and stunned Canada. Not only was the host country expected to defeat the Americans, who looked shaky in their first two games, but beating the attention-grabbing neighbors to the south would have been a source of rare pride in this humble nation.

But it wasn't to be and it is back to the drawing board for Team Canada. As Canadians try to shake off that sick feeling in the pits of their stomachs, their national team will now have to play another preliminary game to make it to the quarterfinals. But Canada can still regroup and make a medal run.

Meanwhile, the United States is now not only respected but is oozing with confidence after their victory. The Americans now have to be in the discussion with Canada, Russia and Sweden when it comes to taking the Gold Medal in these Olympics.

But for now a country that needed a feel-good boost got it. And so let's savor this moment when we can all come together as Americans as we did in 1980 and celebrate another Miracle on Ice.

Russians beat Czech Republic 4-2

On a day when Evgeni Malkin scored two goals and added an assist to upstage his Pittsburgh Penguins teammate Sidney Crosby, it was Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin who provided the game-changing moment with a devastating hit on Jaromir Jagr to send Alex Semin and Malkin to the races. Semin passed to Malkin who shot the puck into the back of the net for a 4-2 lead.

The last game against Slovakia, Ovechkin leveled 6 foot 8, 253 pound defenseman Zdeno Chara not once but twice. Ovechkin loves to hit almost as much as he loves to score. And he isn't afraid to go after the big boys.

Here is the video of Ovechkin's crushing hit on Jagr:

I love the Winter Olympics. I don't care if it's curling or alpine skiing. It's all good. But men's ice hockey starts today and everything else takes a back seat to the best players in the world facing off for their home countries. Nothing beats it.

Will Sid the Kid deliver a Gold Medal for the host country?

Will Alex the Great and the Russians ruin Canada's medal hopes?

Will goaltender Ryan Miller and team USA deliver an upset or two?

Will Peter Forsberg and Sweden repeat their Torino heroics and win gold again?

And what about Teemu Selanne's Finnish squad? They are no pushovers.

An important factor concerns the size of the rink at these games. Normally for the Winter Games the ice sheet is bigger which generally favors the more finesse play of the skilled European players. But a last-minute decision was made to stick with the NHL-sized Canada Place sheet because of the significant number of seats that would have had to be removed to accomodate an international-sized rink.

The common wisdom is that this favors Canada and the USA because North American players are used to dealing with less time and space to work with and also play the game in a slower, more rough-and-tumble way suited for smaller rinks.

But on second examination, I'm not so sure this applies anymore. With so many European-bred players making the adjustment to the NHL-sized rinks I don't think it will be as big a factor as some pundits proclaim. Players such as Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin have learned to change their style of play and have thus been incredibly succesful. And in fact this entire generation of NHL Euro stars has succesfully made the transition to the smaller rink. However, the rest of the non-NHL players on the European teams is another question. Teams such as Latvia and Slovakia may indeed struggle, but I don't think NHL-stacked teams like Russia and Sweden will have much of a problem.

The anticipation has been building for hockey to begin in this puck-mad city and country. It was fitting that national heroes Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky (pictured above) lit the Olympic flame inside BC Place last Friday night. And to see The Great One riding down the streets of a rainy Vancouver on his way to the outdoor flame lighting as the frenzied throngs chased his car was unforgettable.

This is a city and a country that appreciates and loves the game of hockey like no other.

So Game On!

I'll be at The Parlor sports bar in Santa Monica this weekend live-blogging the men's hockey games so be sure to check out SportsFanLive's Olympics live blog page.

I will be leaving for Vancouver a week from this Wednesday and will be attending a couple of hockey games and a speed skating match and will be updating The Hockey Stop blog with my observations from the Olympics so be sure to log on starting Feb. 24 for daily hockey coverage from Vancouver. It is my first Olympics so it should be exciting.

Here is the men's ice hockey schedule:

Tuesday, February 16

12 p.m. USA vs. Switzerland (Men's Preliminary Round -- Group A, Game 1)

4:30 p.m. Canada vs. Norway (Men's Preliminary Round -- Group A, Game 2)

9 p.m. Russia vs. Latvia (Men's Preliminary Round -- Group A, Game 3)

Wednesday, February 17

12 p.m. Finland vs. Belarus (Men's Preliminary Round -- Group C, Game 4)

4:30 p.m. Sweden vs. Germany (Men's Preliminary Round -- Group C, Game 5)

9 p.m. Czech Republic vs. Slovakia (Men's Preliminary Round -- Group B, Game 6)

Thursday, February 18

12 p.m. USA vs. Norway (Men's Preliminary Round - Group A Game 7)

4:30 p.m. Switzerland vs. Canada (Men's Preliminary Round - Group A Game 8)

9 p.m. Slovakia vs. Russia (Men's Preliminary Round - Group B Game 9)

Friday, February 19

12 p.m. Belarus vs. Sweden (Men's Preliminary Round - Group C Game 10)

4:30 p.m. Czech Republic vs. Latvia (Men's Preliminary Round - Group B Game 11)

9 p.m. Finland vs. Germany (Men's Preliminary Round - Group C Game 12)

Saturday, February 20

12 p.m. Norway vs. Switzerland (Men's Preliminary Round - Group A Game 13)

4:30 p.m. Latvia vs. Slovakia (Men's Preliminary Round - Group B Game 14)

9 p.m. Germany vs. Belarus (Men's Preliminary Round - Group C Game 15)

Sunday, February 21

12 p.m. Russia vs. Czech Republic (Men's Preliminary Round - Group B Game 16)

4:40 p.m. Canada vs USA (Men's Preliminary Round - Group A Game 17)

9 p.m. Sweden vs. Finland (Men's Preliminary Round - Group C Game 18)

Tuesday, February 23

12:00 - Men's Playoffs Qualifications - Game 19

Scheduled 4:30 - Men's Playoffs Qualifications - Game 20

Scheduled 7:00 - Men's Playoffs Qualifications - Game 21

Scheduled 9:00 - Men's Playoffs Qualifications - Game 22

Wednesday, February 24

12:00 - Men's Playoffs Quarterfinals - Game 23

Scheduled 4:30 - Men's Playoffs Quarterfinals - Game 24

Scheduled 7:00 - Men's Play-offs Quarterfinals - Game 25

9:00 - Men's Playoffs Quarterfinals - Game 26

Friday, February 26

12 p.m. - Men's Playoffs Semifinals - Game 27

6:30 p.m. - Men's Playoffs Semifinals - Game 28

Saturday February 27

Medal Event Scheduled 7 p.m. - Men's Bronze Medal Game - Game 29

Sunday, February 28

Medal Event Scheduled 12:15 - Men's Gold Medal Game - Game 30

Friday night's Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final on NBC was the most-watched NHL game in 36 years with an average of 8 million viewers.

The network's press release said the previous mark was a 1973 Stanley Cup Final Game 6 between Montreal and Chicago on NBC which drew 9.4 million.

The game earned a 4.3 rating, the best for a series-ending Final game since Anaheim-New Jersey's 4.6 rating in 2003.

NBC Sports' broadcast finished No. 1 for the night in every category including viewership and household ratings.

The closing minutes of the game, which saw Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury make a spectacular last-second save to preserve the 2-1 win (pictured above), drew about 10 million viewers.

These figures are likely higher because Nielsen only reports home television sets tuned into the program and since the game was on a Friday night there were many sports bars, airport lounges and hotel rooms tuned into the game.

Also, when CBC's Canadian coverage is factored in, plus international broadcasts in hot spots such as Russia and Sweden, the total audience grows even bigger.

In related news, Puck the Media blogger Steve Lepore reports that the NHL is on the verge of announcing a broadcast deal with NBC for the next two seasons. The revenue-sharing deal is great news for those hockey fans wanting more exposure for the league, as Game 7 on NBC clearly demonstrates the potential of the games being aired on network TV as opposed to specialty channels such as Versus.

The deal should hopefully include all seven Stanley Cup Finals games on NBC. Also, when the contract with Versus expires in 2011 the NHL should not renew but instead air regular season and playoff games on one of NBC Universal's basic cable channels, the most obvious fit being USA Network.

My colleague at Variety, ratings reporter Rick Kissell, emailed me the Nielsen viewer figures for the first three games of the Stanley Cup Finals and predictably the ratings dropped considerably for game 3 on Versus:

Game 1 (Saturday on NBC) 4.36 million

Game 2 (Sunday on NBC) 5.39 million

Game 3 (Tuesday on Versus) 2.96 million

Thursday's Game 4 on Versus should see another slide in viewers because Game 1 of the NBA Finals starts on ABC.

I will update the ratings numbers after the game. I'm also working on a post about why the NBC Universal-owned USA Network might be a good fit for the NHL. The model could be the successful partnership between the NBA and TNT as well as the cross-media coverage on ABC and ESPN.

NBC already uses the USA Network to supplement its Olympics coverage so it would perhaps be a natural fit for professional ice hockey.

More to come on this subject.