The Canadian and American men’s hockey teams have one heck of an act to follow after what the women’s teams provided us with yesterday. The first of two North American battle royales was the women’s gold medal game, every bit the predicted spectacle as the Canadians provided stunning theatre with their late rally and thrilling overtime finale. The comeback crushed an American team whose palms were reluctantly crossed with silver, again.  Act II features the two best hockey teams on the planet playing for the right to face Sweden in the men’s gold medal game. That’s simply not the kind of high-stakes hockey you see every two days. Soak it all in – you never know when the folks at the NHL are going to pull the plug on this sporting masterpiece. That’s a discussion for another time. Today we have the best and the boldest suiting up in their sweaters and skating for their nations as the United States and Canada play from the Bolshoy Ice Dome while the world watches.  We’re moments away from game time, and if you’re Canadian, you may find yourself talking to the two little people on both sides of your shoulders. Turn to the left and one of them whispers that Canada have only played one decent team this tournament, Finland. That stars such as Sidney Crosby aren’t scoring and are being too unselfish with the puck while trying to set up the perfect goal. That Carey Price hasn’t been tested. Turn to the right and the sell pushes Canada as an undefeated team despite not playing to their full potential, that Price is most certainly the right man for the job, that Mike Babcock is not over-coaching his Canadian all-stars.  The Americans have no such quandaries in their heads. They come in with complete and total confidence, poised and on a white-hot streak. Dan Bylsma’s Team USA do everything well, defense, special teams, and they can score … a lot. The Phil Kessel-James van Riemsdyk-Joe Pavelski line is becoming the stuff of legend, while David Backes is absolutely everywhere, doing nearly everything you can do on the ice short of driving the zamboni. He’s even saving Sochi’s stray dogs. Rather scarily, there seems to be plenty more where that came from.  The puck drops at 9am in Los Angeles and Vancouver, 10am Calgary and Denver, 11am Chicago and Winnipeg, 12pm in New York, Toronto and Montreal, 1.30pm in St John’s, Newfoundland, and at 5pm in the UK. We look forward to your following along with us wherever you are and would love to hear from you. That means sending along predictions, hockey musings, recipes, cash, whatever. Tweet @lengeldavid or write to david.lengel.freelance@theguardian.com.  Standby for ice hockey history.
Rolling report: Canada defeated the United States 1-0 to earn a place in the gold medal game of the Olympic ice hockey tournament in Sochi