Notice to all General Mangers of the participating teams in the EA Cup: As the day dawns on the first ever EA Cup, we have finalized the rule book for the tournament and the pools and schedule for the up coming tournament: Rules Offsides: ON Icing: No Touch Icing Elimination Series Length: Single Knockout Elimination Tie Break: Continuous OT (5 ON 5) Round Robin Tie Breaker: NO OVERTIME Round Robin Overtime Loss: 0 Points Pool A Canada Switzerland Russia Sweden Pool B Czech Repulbic Finland Slovakia USA Check to find your team (underlined) and below will be your game schedule for the 2009 EA Cup: Game 1 Finland vs. USA Game 2 Finland vs. Slovakia Game 3 Finland vs. Czech Republic All games will be televised on TSN (Canada), TSN online feed, and ESPN (USA/World). All games will be held in the our new state of the arch facility in Vancouver, Canada, the EA Sports Arena. We hope to see you all real soon, and let the games begin. Best of luck, EA Sports World Tournament

Starting Goalies

Finland:
Mikka Kiprusoff(SV:0.0%/G.A.A:0)
USA:
Rick Dipiertro(SV:0.0%)/G.A.A:0)


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LATE HERIOCS PUSHES FINLAND PAST THE UNITED STATES

1st Period
Finland 0 - USA 0
As the puck dropped on the first game of Finland and USA's EA Cup, USA came out showing power and grit. USA controlled the puck along the boards in the early going. Five minutes into the game Erik Cole through the puck across the net to Scott Gomez for the one timer, after Kirprusoff made the save, Gomez followed up jamming his own rebound into the net. Scary moment in the dying seconds of the period as Zach Parise was driven hard into the boards by Lasse Kukkonen, and left the game. USA trainers would not confirm that he would not return. The first period came to an end and it was a back and forth battle, Finland had 5 shots to USA's 6 shots.

2nd Period
Finalnd 0 - USA 1
The second period started just how the first period went back and forth, as both team traded equal good chances at both end but both Kirprusoff and Dipiertro were both equal to the task as the period reached the midway mark. With five minutes left in the period Finland has tied up the game on a beautiful play, as Ruutu fed the puck to Valtteri Flippula in the slot who made no mistake putting it right under Dipiertro's arm to tie up the game. Sami Salo took a bad elbowing penalty with just over two minutes to go but USA was unable to get there powerplay going as the second period ended one all. Finalnd closed the frame with 11 shots on goal, while the United States had 15 shots.

3rd Period
Finland 1 - USA 1
Right off the draw Finland came out with a charge as Koviu went through the whole USA as if they were plyons feeding it in front to Lehtinen who was robbed by goalie Dipiertro, who kept it 1 - 1, two minute into the final frame. Parise returned to the ice after being injured in the first period, and had a quality chance but was stopped by Kiprusoff's blocker as the back and forth match between these two teams continued. Late in the third Dipiertro came up big for the USA, turning away countless chances from Lehtinen, Selanne and Koivu to keep it a tie game with only two minutes and thirty second left in the game. With time dying down Salo point shot was tipped in by Jere Lehtinen(video below) with only 12 seconds remaining in the period to give Finland the 2 - 1 lead. Finland managed to weather storm and defeated the USA. The final shots were: Finland 24 and USA 16.

Final Score
Finland 2 - USA 1

3 Stars
Third Star: Scott Gomez (USA)
1G 0A
Second Star: Rick Dipiertro (USA)
22 Saves
First Star: Jere Lehtinen (FIN)
1G 0A

Play of the Game:

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Originally Posted by Spinoff360 To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Kipper To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Did you get a little confused with the US goalies though? Dipietro was who you said most of the game and then suddenly in the third for no reason at all Miller gets mentioned and ends up with a star of the game To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.