USA against Canada. It's on.

As the Olympics in the land to the North begin to wind down, I think it's fair to say I've had my fair share of hockey viewing. Yesterday alone there were four games in the men's medal-round of the tournament, and I managed to watch at least part of all of them.

The gold medal game is all set: USA versus Canada. North American hockey fans, hockey fans in general and especially NBC could not have asked for a better match-up in the final game. USA beat Canada 5-3 last Sunday prior to the medal rounds. Canada is now looking to follow the lead of the women's team, which beat USA for gold on Wednesday.

For Canada to win gold on both the men's and the women's sides of the puck in the country where the game was created, there is nothing better. Even though the Canadians haven't had quite the overall medal success I think they were hoping for, it has been clear from the start that a gold in men's ice hockey would be the ultimate prize.

USA takes it to the Finns
Team USA won handily 6-1 over Finland in the semifinal game Friday, routing the Finns for six goals in the first period. In the process, Calgary Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff bascially took himself out of the game after the fourth goal and was replaced by the Minnesota Wild's own Niklas Backstrom.

It wasn't just the goaltending that was causing problems for Finland. They looked flat the entire first period, typical of a team that "didn't show up," as they say. The first period was really the story of this game.

The final two periods were good to watch, and a bit more even. USA goalie Ryan Miller, who has been stellar throughout the tournament, was given a break with a few minutes left in the game. This was mostly to give Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas a shot to play in the Olympics. He gave up a goal to the Wild's Antti Miettinen.

Making it through to the final
Canada played the evening game on Friday against Slovakia. (I once again forgot that this game was on, because I was busy watching the other Olympic coverage on NBC.) I caught most of the third period. Canada had a 3-0 lead deep in the third, but things got interesting when Slovakia tallied a pair. They came close at the end, with former-Wild player Pavol Demitra firing a point-blank shot wide with less than a minute remaining.

But in the end, we'll get the match-up we've all been hoping for: USA versus Canada, 2:15 p.m. (Central time) Sunday, and NBC was gracious enough to run this high-profile game on its main network. I have a feeling this will be a good way to wind down the Games before the closing ceremonies that evening.

USA. Canada. Gold. Let's play hockey!