Coming into the men’s Olympic hockey tournament, the Canadians were the favorite to win Gold and were expected to be the betting favorite in every game that they played.
United States vs Canada Olympic hockey semifinal betting showdown
The Olympic hockey semi-final sees even betting odds between Canada and Team USA. The winner should be favored in the Gold medal game Sunday.
Bruce Bennett
But in Friday’s semifinals matchup against the United States, Canada is locked in a pick’em with both teams going off at -110 on the moneyline.
The United States continued their dominance on both sides of the ice in a 5-2 win over the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals. The USA quickly responded to a fluky goal by the Czechs with a goal by Dustin Brown to take a 2-1 lead early in the first period, and a David Backes goal at the end of the period gave the Americans all the offense they needed for goaltender Jonathan Quick.
The USA has outscored opponents 19-6 through the first four games of the Olympics, beating the Olympic hockey odds at every turn. They boast the firepower to do it again Friday.
Canada’s quarterfinals matchup was supposed to be a gimme on paper going up against Latvia. But despite out-shooting the Latvians 57-16, the game was knotted at one goal apiece until late in the third period when Shea Weber put Canada up 2-1 on the power play.
With the exception of a 6-0 rout over Austria, Canada has been underwhelming on offense with just seven goals scattered across its other three games. Defense and goaltending have been fantastic though as Canada has allowed only three goals all tournament, plunging them under the total on all games lined at 5Dimes.eu.
Canada may have the better offense on paper, but in Sochi the United States’ offense has been much more potent. This rematch of 2010’s gold medal game is the one that everyone’s been waiting to see, and it looks to be an incredibly even matchup.
Canada’s men hope they can ‘play like girls’ and follow in the women’s skate-steps by winning. Canada rallied to beat Team USA in overtime Thursday.
The team that wins this game will be a heavy favorite to take Gold on Sunday.
Some fun Canada vs USA hockey props, gathered from OddsShark.com.
(CAN @ USA) - Who will record more points in the game?
Sidney Crosby (CAN) +165
Phil Kessel (USA) +170
Draw +145
(CAN @ USA) - Who will record more points in the game?
Jonathan Toews (CAN) +190
Patrick Kane (USA) +170
Draw +125
(CAN @ USA) - Who will record more points in the game?
Ryan Getzlaf (CAN) +190
James van Riemsdyk (USA) +175
Draw +125
(CAN @ USA) - Who will record more points in the game?
Corey Perry (CAN) +200
Joe Pavelski (USA) +170
Draw +120
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