USA, Russia both at their best in instant classic

With the exception of American winger Blake Wheeler and Russian forward Alexander Radulov, you wouldn't say that any single player on the American or Russian sides had an "off-game" on Saturday. 

Nearly every key player on both the Russian and American sides brought their "A-game" during Team USA's 3-2 shootout victory on Saturday. Perhaps that's what made the contest so compelling. It was a high-stakes struggle between two great teams that were playing some of their best hockey against one another.

Fittingly, no team really dominated. The Russians controlled the run of play at five-on-five, but the Americans were better on special teams and both goaltenders were solid. Ultimately it took a dazzling array of shoot-out moves from American winger T.J. "don't call me an American hero" Oshie to decide a winner.

In a physical first period the Americans out-shot the Russian side narrowly, although Russia managed to generate more quality looks. It was interesting to see Russia match the Americans physically hit-for-hit throughout the game, and they managed to do so without getting away from the skill game they'll need to play if they hope to win gold at the tournament.

In the second Pavel Datsyuk opened the scoring beating Jonathan Quick with a wrist-shot on a partial breakaway. Datsyuk was magnetic on Saturday, and very probably the best player on either team despite his nagging lower-body injury. 

The Americans answered before the period was up, however, as Radulov took a retaliatory penalty on Dustin Brown and American defenseman Cam Fowler directed a puck in past Sergei Bobrovsky with his skate on the ensuing power-play. 

As the stakes were elevated in the third period, the game tightened up. Both teams cashed in power-play goals, but there was little available for either side at five-on-five in the third frame.

Overtime was breathless, and American superstar Patrick Kane had a breakaway opportunity to win the game but was stoned by Sergei Bobrovsky. At the other end Quick turned aside quality looks from Ovechkin and Datsyuk.

Then T.J. Oshie sauntered onto the stage and stole the show in the shootout. The rest is history.

Scoring Chances

Note: a scoring chance is counted any time a team directs a shot cleanly on-net from within the area where the most goals go in - between and below the circles. You can get a handle on what the scoring chance area looks like here. Shots on goal and misses are counted, but blocked shots are not (unless the player who blocks the shot is “acting like a goaltender”). Generally speaking, we are more generous with the boundaries of the scoring chance area if there is dangerous puck movement immediately preceding the scoring chance, or if the scoring chance is screened. Tip shots are only counted if they're obvious sets. 

Here are the individual scoring chance contributions from American skaters:

The Americans were surprisingly reliant on their top line on Saturday for generating and sustaining pressure in the Russian end of the rink. Most of Kane's scoring chances came on the power-play or at four aside in overtime.

Cam Fowler, as you might have noticed, wasn't credited with a scoring chance on his power-play goal. It deflected in off of his skate, so it's not counted based on our criteria.

Here are the individual scoring chance contributions for the Russian skaters:

Oddly enough it would appear that the Russian forwards held a sizeable depth advantage over Team USA, which I don't think many would've predicted in advance of Saturday's contest. 

Russia's top-six was excellent - Pavel Datsyuk had some kind of game on Saturday, while Alexander Ovechkin and Ilya Kovalchuk were absurdly dangerous throughout. But it's Russia's forward depth that stands out as a positive indicator for the host country going forward.

Russia's fourth line of Alexander Popov, Vladimir Tarashenko and Valeri Nichushkin have been involved offensively for the Russians throughout the tournament thus far. Meanwhile their third-line, centered by Artem Anisimov, has been very successful at limiting opponents chances. 

Here are the team scoring chance totals: