USA - Czech Republic quick facts

Do you know: 

1. Teams have met twice in men's ice hockey at Olympic Winter Games. Both encounters were won by Czech Republic
2. The first meeting took place at Lillehammer in 1994. In the classification round for fifth to eighth place, the Czechs triumphed 5-3 Four years later at Nagano, Czech Republic defeated United States 4-1 in the quarterfinals. The Czechs would go on to win that tournament and collect their only Olympic gold medal in ice hockey to date
3. Czech Republic is coming off its worst-ever Olympic outing, having finished seventh in Vancouver four years ago. The gold medal in 2010 was won by Canada, which was also coming off a worst-ever seventh place finish
4. United States has won 11 medals in Olympic men's ice hockey, second only to Canada's 14. Of the 11 medals won by USA, eight were silver, including the one collected in Vancouver four years ago
5. No team has taken a silver medal in men's ice hockey in one Winter Olympic Games then won gold in the next since the Soviet Union in 1984
6. United States has not won a medal outside of the Americas in 42 years, since picking up a silver in Sapporo in 1972
7. United States has won its only two Olympic gold medals in men's ice hockey on home ice, at Squaw Valley in 1960 and in Lake Placid in 1980
8. Jaromir Jagr and Petr Nedved are both in contention to surpass the mark for oldest medal winner in Olympic men's ice hockey, a record currently held by Igor Larionov
9. Coming into the quarterfinals, Phil Kessel was leading the tournament in points scored. Kessel scored four goals and provided three assists for a total of seven points in Team USA's first three matches
10. United States has won its first three matches of this tournament. It started with a 7-1 triumph over Slovakia, proceeded by beating Russia 3-2 after a penalty shootout, then beat Slovenia 5-1
11. Czech Republic has won two matches and lost two in this tournament. It started with a 4-2 defeat against Sweden, then beat Latvia 4-2 before losing 1-0 to Switzerland. In the qualification playoff round, the Czechs beat Slovakia 5-3. 

Quote of the game:

Alois Hadamczik (Czech Republic coach): "The US is a great, dynamic team. All of the preparations will be done tomorrow, we won't do anything for the rest of the night. We will look at the video and work with our players individually. We'll be ready."

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