First Nations hockey stars make their mark in Sochi

The biggest story of the Olympic hockey tournament was the dominating play of Team Canada. Much to the surprise of many fans and hockey pundits, Canada won gold not by outgunning opponents but through adhering to a defence-first system engineered by coach Mike Babcock. Team Canada Executive Director Steve Yzerman, the primary architect of Canada’s back-to-back gold medal performances, put it simply when asked if this was the best defensive team that has ever taken the ice for Canada.

“I think so,” said Yzerman.

For Canada, the defensive emphasis started in the net. Habs goaltender Carey Price travelled to Sochi sporting impressive numbers, including 26 wins and a .925 save percentage, fourth in the NHL among goaltenders who have appeared in at least 40 games this season. Indeed, Price’s heroics have kept Montreal in the playoff hunt in the NHL’s ultra-competitive Eastern Conference.

Price, who hails from the small BC town of Anahim Lake and is a member of the Ulkatcho First Nation, was particularly outstanding in the week prior to the Olympic break, leading the Habs to three straight wins while giving up just three goals.

But, apparently not all the so-called “hockey insiders” in Canada’s sports media watch a lot of Habs’ hockey. Many cited a lack of international experience and a checkered playoff record as reasons why Price, who in 2007 backstopped Canada to gold in the 2007 World Junior Championships and the Hamilton Bulldogs to the Calder Cup, should be passed over in favour of veterans Roberto Luongo and Mike Smith.

Price silenced the critics by posting back-to-back shutouts when it mattered most, including a 31-save gem in Canada’s 1-0 Olympic semi-final win over USA, and a 24-save performance in Canada’s 3-0 gold-medal victory over Sweden.

“That was the hardest-working team I’ve ever seen,” Price told ESPN after the gold medal victory. “I really can’t say enough about that group of defensemen and that overall team in front of me. Our work ethic was what won us this championship.”

Native hockey talent wasn’t only on the ice. Latvia hired Ted Nolan to coach its national team of underdogs, who gave Canada a huge scare before finally falling 2-1 to the Canuck powerhouse.

Carey Price, however, was not the only First Nations hockey player to silence the naysayers with a standout performance in Sochi. Many eyebrows were raised when St. Louis Blues forward T.J. Oshie was added to Team USA. Oshie, an Ojibwe born in Washington State and raised in Warroad, Minnesota, got the Olympic nod over a number of very talented US players, including the Ottawa Senators’ Bobby Ryan and Brandon Saad of the Chicago Blackhawks.

In the Americans’ opening game of the tourney, a 7-1 rout of Slovakia, Oshie saw just under 11 minutes of ice time. In the following game, a much-anticipated showdown with Russia, Oshie again saw little action, recording just two shots on goal in just over nine minutes on the ice. But when 60 minutes of regulation, followed by five minutes of overtime left the score deadlocked at 2-2, it became very apparent why David Poile, general manager of Team USA, selected Oshie.

Unlike in the NHL, where a different player must be used for each round of the shootout, in the Olympics a player may be used multiple times after the initial three rounds. So it was for TJ Oshie, who was the go-to guy for USA coach Dan Bylsma in six of the eight rounds of shootout required to settle the score against Russia.

Going head-to-head against Russian superstars Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk, who were called on to make seven of Russia’s eight shootout attempts, Oshie thrilled a global hockey audience with daring dekes and dangles, outscoring Kovalchuk and Datsyuk 4-3 to give the USA the victory and the top seed in the elimination round of the tournament.

“You are going to see T.J. Oshie be a household name after that display he put on today,” said David Backes, Oshie’s teammate both in Sochi and St. Louis. “Kids will be out on the pond, probably in Minnesota right now, throwing a five-hole on the goalie three or four times in a row.”