‘94 WINTER OLYMPICS / LILLEHAMMER : Italy Has No Luck at Stopping the Puck

LILLEHAMMER, Norway —  The hockey game here at the Great Eastern Forum was, oh, only four minutes old, but already I was humming, “Na na na na. Na na na na. Hey, hey, hey. Arrivederci .”

USA 7, Italy uno.

Team Italia’s goaltender, David (Do I Believe in Miracles? No, I Believe in Getting My Butt Back to the Bench Where It’s Safe) Delfino, was out there doing his remarkably realistic impersonation of the Holland tunnel. About the third time one of the United States’ shots went through his wickets like a croquet ball, the Italian coach whispered into the ear hole of David’s goalie mask, “Psst. You’re supposed to keep your legs closed .”

Italia, I tell ya. Not much in the ol’ puck-stoppage department.

Even after Delfino was told to take the rest of the day off and his relief netminder, Bruno Campese, came in to blow the save, I sensed that the Americans had not, with this easy victory here in ice land, given a sound thrashing to the NHL’s version of a Dream Team. Matter of fact, I’ve got 10 kroner in my pocket that says Jordan, Johnson, Barkley, Ewing, Robinson and Bird could whip the Italian hockey team themselves, by maybe, say, 6-1. Bird could sprawl in the goal crease on his tummy and stop more pucks than Delfino and Campese.

Trouble is, a tougher foe awaits the men on skates for the States.

It’s the Big Blue Machine.

The new bad boys of the rink.

The Finland Empire.

With a game to be played Wednesday that worries him plenty, the U.S. coach, Tim Taylor, said after Monday night’s game, “It’s a little bit of a David and Goliath story.”

This quote was passed along to Garth Snow, who is one of the American goalies and not the guy Dana Carvey played in those “Wayne’s World” films.

Snow said, “Who’s David and who’s Goliath?”

Ah. Good question.

See, neither Garth nor I thought we would ever come to a Winter Olympics where we would hear anybody referring to Finland as Goliath. I have been following international sports for a long time and, to be painfully candid, I’ve never even heard anybody refer to Finland as David. We don’t do a whole lot of referring to Finland in general, frankly.

For some reason, however, nobody noticed before this particular Olympics that when none of us was looking, Finland put together one pretty darn fine hockey club. I’m not sure how this happened. Somebody over there at Helsinki Square Garden really did his homework.

Here in Lillehammer, the first nine days of the hockey competition produced one major surprise, that being everybody who got in the Finns’ path being absolutely Zamboni’d. I mean, these guys beat the Russians the way the Russians used to beat Belgium. It wasn’t even close. That red light went on so often behind the Russian goalie, he thought he’d been pulled over.

Even the Finnish coach has been going around crowing how he’s got the finest team in the tournament. He’s done everything but say, “Put it in three-inch type. We will win the Olympics!”

Taylor didn’t exactly wave the white flag of surrender. He waved a red, white and blue flag. He said something like, you know, we’ve done it before, we can do it again.

He understated the situation, though, when he said: “They’ve dominated all their opponents. You have to give him bragging rights so far. His team’s been the dominant team from the start.”

And here’s something for you folks with short attention spans.

Our 1980 USA miracle hockey team did not defeat Russia to win the gold medal. Our 1980 USA miracle hockey team defeated Finland to win the gold medal.

The date was Feb. 24, the place Lake Placid and the score 2-1 after two periods, in favor of the Finns. How soon we forget. The game against Russia--excuse me, the USSR--was played on a Friday afternoon, 5 o’clock, two days before. The American public still had to sweat out that Sunday matinee, which wasn’t in the bag until Phil Verchota, Rob McClanahan and Mark Johnson slapped shots past Finland’s goalie for a 4-2 victory to remember. (Or to forget, as many have.) Poor Finland suffered so much from that defeat, it didn’t even win a medal. It placed fourth.

Second at Calgary in 1988, the Finns slipped to seventh place four years later at Albertville. But they are back , believe me.

And even though the Americans looked pretty slick in their latest game, what with Peter Ciavaglia, Peter Ferraro and David Sacco peppering that poor Italian goalie until he was given the hook, I’m not sure that their defeating Finland this Wednesday wouldn’t be right up there with that 1980 game. Not in impact, I suppose, but in Great Upsets of Olympic Hockey history, yes.

What can I say?

We’re not Goliath, Garth. Taylor, the coach, said: “Our guys have to get their chests out and their American pride up.”

And keep their legs closed.