A recap of the second period between the United States and Switzerland:

Pierre LeBrun: Scott, as I suspected, that opening goal really gave the young bucks from Team USA momentum. And boy did they ever bring it in the second period. Stage fright on the biggest stage in hockey? Not today, anyway. David Backes made Swiss cheese of Montreal Canadiens defenseman Yannick Weber in a beauty end-to-end rush. That was the back-breaker goal. Can 40 minutes of hockey already erase the 2006 nightmare?

Scott Burnside: Well, the tendency will be to overstate the importance of one game, especially against a team essentially has two full-time NHLers (Jonas Hiller and Mark Streit), but the Americans have pretty much executed their game plan to perfection. They used their youth and speed and physicality to control the game for long stretches. It makes you think about the possibilities for what will be a crucial matchup against Canada on Sunday.

LeBrun: And when needed today, Ryan Miller has looked real sharp. He had to make a few good saves late in the second period during a few rare U.S. breakdowns. I also think one of the more interesting things so far is the top line of Paul Stastny between Patrick Kane and Zach Parise actually hasn't done that much. And that's OK; it means there might indeed be some secondary scoring on this team.

Burnside: That's an excellent point, Pierre. The only way the Americans medal here is if they can continue to bring the kind of energy we've seen through two periods and get production from up and down the lineup. Interesting to see the power play come up with a goal in the second period, as Ryan Malone poked home a loose puck after a long period of puck control in the Swiss zone. Assistant coach John Tortorella is running the power play and primarily used the top two lines along with Ryan Suter and Erik Johnson or Brian Rafalski on the points. Special teams will be huge moving forward and the American units were clicking in the second frame this afternoon.