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Russia VS Canada.During Wednesday night's Olympic hockey game between Canada and Russia, I looked away from the TV twice for maybe a moment at most – and missed two goals by the Canadians. Things happened quickly in that one.

I suppose it didn't matter that much, though, because you didn't need to see every second of the play to get the message that the Canadian team was more physical, focused and just flat out better on this night, as the 7-3 final score would suggest.

Since Russia is the reigning world champion, you get an idea of just what transpired in this one.

I'm not sure anyone saw this coming. Russian coach Slava Bykov surely didn't, leaving shellshocked goalie Evgeni Nabokov to take a fearsome beating, pulling him only after the game was well out of hand. Canada led 3-0 just 13 minutes into the game, 6-1 early in the second period and cruised on in. Russian star Alex Ovechkin was badgered basically into an afterthought.

It was an overwhelming performance.

Just a few days ago, the Canadians looked in dire distress. We seemed ready to witness one of the great meltdowns in the history of sport.

Here's what they were up against: Before the Olympics began, a lot of people thought this would be the game for the gold medal, but Canada had played itself into the position of needing to beat one of the planet's hockey superpowers in a quarterfinal game just to stay alive.

And the Canadians hadn't beaten Russia in the Olympics in 50 years.

Instead, the stage is now prepared for what could be one of those sporting events we'll talk about for a long time. Canada and the United States have reached the semifinals of this amazingly entertaining tournament.

With victories on Friday against Slovakia and Finland, respectively, they would meet for the gold.

I don't care if you don't know a hockey puck from a beanbag, that's one game you'll have to watch. The passion of the Canadian fans makes it so. It's not possible to want something more deeply than they want this gold medal, and the stress was starting to show. They needed a shootout to beat Switzerland 3-2, then were beaten 5-3 by the United States last Sunday night. It was the first time Canada lost in Olympic hockey to the United States since the 1960 Games in Squaw Valley.

That put them in the incredible position of needing to beat Germany in what amounted to a play-in game, just to make it the game against Russia.

But now?

If they play the rest of the tournament like they did against the Russians, Canada will be awfully hard to beat. We can only imagine right now what the atmosphere will be like if Canada and the United States meet for the gold. Electric won't begin to describe it.

You had to feel good for former Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Dan Boyle, who had a goal and two assists for Canada. Boyle was essentially run out of town by the soon-to-be former owners of the Lightning, not long after he had signed a contract extension with a no-trade clause. It was a classless move to a classy guy by the Bolts. We just need to point that out every now and then.

The U.S. team hardly looked like a juggernaut in beating Switzerland 2-0 Wednesday, but the Americans are 4-0 in the tournament and that should count for something. The game against the Swiss was starting to look like one of those types of games – shots clanking off the post, one dribbling across the goal line a fraction of a second too late at the end of the second period, frustration beginning to increase.

Good teams figure out a way to win games like that, though. That's what the United States did.

Tournaments like this can do wonders for hockey.

Even though NBC has relegated the games to its cable stations MSNBC and CNBC, that has actually been a good thing. The games aren't competing with skiing and skating for air time on the main network, so hockey fans get uninterrupted treatment of their favorite sport.

NBC has done a good job of following the action and showing how desperately Canada wants to win. I can't imagine the pressure that must be on that team, but the Canadians are cranked up and rolling now, playing with confidence and giving their countrymen reason for hope.

It was quite the sight to see against the Russians.