Sam Donnellon: It's a Ryansden as U.S. beats Finland

VANCOUVER - Team USA scored six goals in the first 13 minutes against Finland yesterday and they did it by overcoming a severe handicap.

There are six guys named Ryan on this team, and another with the last name of Ryan and another guy named Brian. They forecheck in waves of Ryan, their best defense pairing are Ryan and Brian. The goalie is a Ryan.

You can see the potential for communication getting a little hairy out there.

"You have to make up nicknames," Ryan Malone was saying after Team USA advanced

to the gold-medal game by mugging the Finns, 6-1. "Otherwise when they say Ryan, everyone looks."

Malone has been Bugsy for a while now, so no problem there. Not

exactly what his mother had in mind, but since the old man once also played for the Pittsburgh Penguins, she had to see it coming. Ryan Suter is "Suits," the same name his dad, Bob, went by when he was playing for that "Miracle on Ice" team.

The other Ryans had to reinvent themselves so to speak.

Ryan Callahan is Cally, Ryan Kesler is Kess, Miller is Millsy, Ryan Whitney is Whitty, Brian Rafalski is Raffi, like the children's crooner. Pretty standard hockey nicknames.

And Bobby Ryan?

He's Bobby.

OK, so it's not a severe handicap. Turns out, Team USA has communicated better than any team in this tournament, which is why they're lined up to play in their second gold-medal game of the last three Olympics.

Consider the formula to yesterday's blowout. Malone scored the first goal barely more than 2 minutes into the game by reading and following Kesler's forecheck, intercepting goalie Miikka Kiprusoff's clear attempt and firing it into an empty net. Paul Stastny and Zach Parise played a little two-man postup on the power play for the second goal, after Rafalski fed them the hockey equivalent of an alley-oop.

Dustin Brown, the Los Angeles Kings' captain, created two consecutive power plays with his forecheck. Malone chased down a dump-in to create the third goal, scored by Erik Johnson. As the score grew and the place

quieted, you could hear players not on or with the puck shouting out instructions, serving as eyes to those on or with the puck.

You just never heard anything that rhymed with lion.

The United States has not

allowed more than a goal to any team but Canada in this tournament. Early on, that was more about Miller than communication. Defensemen tried too many home-run clears, seemed confused where to play and who to play it to, necessitating some

heroic saves and shot-blocking, of which they are clearly the best team at doing.

Yesterday, though, they needed very little of that. Yesterday they looked so much like those old Soviet teams, knocking away passes in the neutral zone, flipping them into odd-man rushes, creating turmoil with their speed on the forecheck.

"Moving the puck, looking like five guys working together," U.S. coach Ron Wilson said. "I loved the job our defensemen did with their sticks and closing on the Finns when they got it into our zone."

"I have to give them a lot of credit," said Kimmo Timonen, the Flyers' defenseman in his third Olympic Games for Finland. "They came at us hard.

Really hard."

The U.S. power play looked like an instructional video. They cycled the puck as if they had played 40 games together, not four, but the other truth about this team is that they are no strangers to each other. Brown has played in six World Championships since 2002. Parise has played in five.

"It's amazing how familiar they were with each other, right from the start," said Chris Drury, one of three position

players over the age of 30 on

this team.

Drury's role on this team is to kill penalties and give a fourth-liner a blow. He's fine with it.

Cally kills penalties, too, Bugsy is supposed to get to the front of the net, Kess has been a surprisingly good forechecker in this tournament. When Thomas replaced Millsy amid a shutout yesterday, the goaltender skated to the bench and high-fived Wilson in approval.

And when Bobby took a puck to the neck in the third period?

That was just Bobby being Bobby.

There is one game left. Sixty minutes left of hockey, against Canada, the most talented team in the world, which barely got by Slovakia, 3-2, last night.

Sixty minutes more of assuming an alias before you can regain the name your mother gave you.

"Not much of a sacrifice, really," Malone said. "Especially if it leads to a gold medal." *

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