The United States' drive for five continues.
In a semifinal contest against one of its most familiar rivals Friday, the Americans overcame a determined Czech team, scoring six unanswered goals and securing an unprecedented fifth straight gold medal game berth.
“The Czech team pushed us very hard. They played very well defensively. They came out hitting hard," U.S. forward David Eustace said after the game. "But we knew that it was going to be that way. We just had to capitalize on it, and we finished it off."
The game got off to a slow start — a scene rarely found when the U.S. squad is on the ice. Neither team scored through the first five minutes of play. Then, on a power play, Czechia got on the board.
Exactly five minutes into the opening frame, the United States' Evan Nichols was called for teeing, giving Czechia its first of two advantages throughout the game. Czechia's Lukas Kapko collected the puck off the faceoff and sent a shot toward the net, but it went wide. Pavel Kubes scooped the puck up and, seeing teammate Michal Geier skate toward the net, fired it in his direction. Geier then smoothly poked the puck past U.S. goalie Griffin Lamarre, who slid across the crease too late to make the save.
Entering Friday's game, the United States boasted a perfect penalty kill across three contests in Milan.
Emboldened by their lead, the Czechs ramped up their defense, denying the Americans many clear paths to the net. Then, as he often does, Declan Farmer came to the United States' rescue.
U.S. teammate Eustace intercepted a Czech pass just below the neutral zone and pushed it toward Travis Dodson as he sailed up the ice. Dodson then rifled a shot toward the right side of the net that bounced off of Czech goalie Patrick Sedlacek's pads, but before Sedlacek could recover and protect the rest of his crease, Farmer swooped in and potted the rebound.
With his goal, the 28-year-old Farmer snapped the records for most goals and points recorded in a single Paralympic tournament. Farmer surpassed the marks for most career Paralympic goals and points during the group stage.
By the second period, the United States began to settle in.
Farmer contributed to two more goals in the second, assisting on Eustace's first goal of the game and then scoring one of his own.
Five minutes into the middle period, Farmer protected the puck from several Czech defenders as he carried it up the ice and launched it toward the net. The puck landed behind the goal and bounced off the back wall. Eustace found the loose puck and used Sedlacek's glove as a backboard to give the United States a 2-1 lead.
Farmer increased the edge once again just 19 seconds later, receiving a cross-crease pass from Eustace and sliding it into a wide open net.
The United States doubled its lead in the final period. For the third time during the game, the scoring once again began five minutes into the frame.
Josh Pauls, a five-time Paralympian and three-time captain, dragged the puck up the middle of the ice, waited for Czech goalie Patrik Sedlacek to open up, and calmly slid the puck by the left post and into the net.
Farmer scored his third goal of the game two-and-a-half minutes later, brilliantly switching the puck between his hands as he wove through a sea of Czech defenders for his fourth hat trick in four games so far in Milan. Noah Grove then increased the United States' total to six.
In each of its three previous contests in Milan, the United States had recorded at least two goals in the first period. When the Czech defense slipped, Sedlacek kept his team in the game, blocking 35 of the United States' 41 total shots. But the United States kept fighting, determined to earn a historic gold medal bid.
"We’ve got to earn our spots in the gold medal game. Everyone, before the tournament, put us and Canada into it, but we have to be the ones to go out there and earn it," Farmer said. "It's an incredible feeling to play for gold.”
Farmer contributed to each of the United States' six goals, increasing the single-tournament Paralympic records to 14 goals and 24 points. With just one more assist in the gold medal game, he'll tie his own record for most assists registered in a single Paralympics. He currently has 10. In Beijing, he tallied 11.
The United States now moves on to its fifth title game appearance in as many Paralympic tournaments. No sled hockey team has ever qualified for five back-to-back gold medal games.
The country has made the podium in every Paralympics since 2002, winning gold in five of the last six.
Only three other hockey programs have won four back-to-back titles in the Olympics or Paralympics: Canada's Olympic men's team (1920, 1924, 1928, 1932), the Soviet Union's Olympic men's team (1964, 1968, 1972, 1976), and Canada's Olympic women's team (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014). Norway is the only country — aside from the United States — to make four-straight Paralympic gold medal games, though it only won once, in 1998 (the United States prevented Norway from repeating as champion in 2002).
What's more, the United States could become the first country to sweep all three Olympic and Paralympic hockey tournaments. The country's men and women claimed double gold in the Olympic tournament in Milan in February.
The United States will face the winner of the semifinal matchup between Canada and China in the final. Czechia, which has never placed above 5th at any previous Paralympic tournament, will compete for bronze.