Ryan Suter praises Team USA's collective spirit

From Sportsbeat staff, in Vancouver

 NASHVILLE Predators' Ryan Suter praised the USA's collective spirit after a dogged 2-0 victory over Switzerland moved his side to within two victories of their first Olympic ice hockey gold for 30 years.

Two goals from Zach Parise, the first a scrappy effort at the start of the third period and the second a routine finish after Switzerland had pulled goaltender Jonas Hiller, was enough to seal victory in Canada Hockey Place.

It was not all plain sailing for the USA who had two goals disallowed and ran into Hiller in fine from in between the Swiss pipes.

Firstly Hiller, in one of the few mistakes he made, appeared to juggle the puck over the line at the end of the second period, only for the officials to rule the clock had expired.

And just minutes after Parise had scored his first, the USA thought they had doubled their advantage, only for Ryan Kesler to be called for interference and the game was called back for a review of a possible Swiss goal, only for the umpires to conclude Switzerland's Sandy Jeannin had struck the post.

Suter, 25, is one of a number of relatively young members of the USA side, who have just three players with Olympic experience prior to Vancouver, but he believes they have mental toughness in abundance.

"We knew they were going to come at us but we battled it out and hung around and we got the chance and we took it," said Suter.

"We knew we had to stay with it and not change our game plan. We had to play a good team game and get pucks in deep and wear them down, which we did.

"We are all on the same page, we all want to win and we all have that same goal of winning gold.

"We are going to do whatever it takes to win. I thought in the first we were good. We had a lot of shots, a lot of chances but just couldn't take any.

"In the second we let them back in and didn't capitalise on the chances we had again but in the third we came out flying and capitalised finally.

"And that says a lot about the team, that was a tough one but we battled when we could have easily folded the tents."

Meanwhile, Switzerland's Hnat Domenichelli admitted that while his side produced a creditable defensive display, they did not step onto the front foot enough to trouble the USA.

"It turned out to be a one nothing game with an empty net goal. It was great for us but offensively 19 shots against a team like that and a goalie like that is not enough," he said.

"We just couldn't get enough sustained pressure to back them off and create our own chances.

"It is disappointing because we had a chance and at one nothing one chance and one shot either way but they were clearly the better team."

 

AS IT HAPPENS: Day 13 of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver