A Tale Of Two Power Plays

In the final five minutes or so of the second period, both the Canadians and the Americans were treated to a two-minute-long power play. The Canadians were relentless on theirs, pinning the puck in the American end, disturbing the USA defense and goaltender Jessie Vetter, just plain tiring them out.

They moved the puck around without regard for the US, they got bodies in front of the net, they moved their bodies around and got a ton of shots on goal. The Americans did a lot of good things on their power play as well, but the one thing they aren't doing it getting their positioning right. They aren't getting bodies in front of Canadian goaltender Shannon Szabados, allowing her clear sight on the puck. The US isn't disrupting Canada's defense nearly enough as they should be.

While Canada is tiring the Americans out with the man advantage, the US isn't doing the same thing. They must make it harder on Canada when they're in that end of the ice if they're going to want to beat Szabados, who is playing out of this world in this hockey game.

20 minutes to go and there's a gold medal on the line. Regardless of the outcome, these teams highly dislike each other and the third period should be extremely entertaining.

More: SB Nation’s full coverage of the Winter Olympics and the 2010 Winter Olympics Medal Count Tracker.