Richter, Un-Nettled

NAGANO, Japan —  When he is at his best, goaltender Mike Richter’s universe consists of the puck and shooter and nothing else.

He cannot think of what might go wrong. He thinks only about the puck, the shooter and what he must do to defend his net.

“It’s positioning, focus, all those things,” Richter said. “Everybody has a plan, whether it’s figure skating or downhill skiing. When you struggle, you sometimes try to do too much. You have to focus on one thing.”

His focus was unshakable during the World Cup of Hockey in 1996, a splendid performance that won him most-valuable-player honors. To capitalize on the bond forged during that triumph, the U.S. World Cup team has been re-created almost exactly at the Olympics. For the outcome to be the same, Richter must play his role equally well, beginning Friday when the U.S. opened round-robin play against Sweden at Big Hat.

In other games that will showcase the NHL stars who arrived this week, Canada will face Belarus, Finland the Czech Republic and Russia Kazakhstan, a surprise qualifier.

“The U.S. against Sweden will be an excellent game,” said Herb Brooks, coach of the gold medal-winning 1980 U.S. Olympic team--the last U.S. entry to win a hockey medal. “Sweden has a very, very talented team. Their goalkeeping has been good. Now it has to be consistent.

“I think goaltending is going to decide this thing. That’s why the U.S. and Canada are going to be the favorites. I like their goalkeeping.”

U.S. Coach Ron Wilson likes Richter enough to have picked him over John Vanbiesbrouck and Guy Hebert to start against Sweden, which favors a conservative, defensive style but can be dangerous offensively because of the world-class skills of centers Peter Forsberg and Mats Sundin. “Systems don’t win hockey games. Players do,” Wilson said.

With 196 NHL victories and triumphs in the World Cup and 1994 Stanley Cup finals on his resume, Richter has proven he knows how to win big games.

“In a tournament like this, where there are some of the best goaltenders in the world playing, goaltending could be the difference,” Wilson said. “I think it can be said of all the great goaltenders that they want the puck. They want the start. And they’re very focused when they get that opportunity to play. I think Mike Richter might be a little bit nervous but won’t have a lot of anxiety over playing in the gold-medal game or something like that.”

Richter, 31, is more eager than nervous. After flailing through a mediocre season with the New York Rangers, he feels as though he won the lottery in getting to play behind a talented, experienced defense that includes Norris Trophy winners Brian Leetch and Chris Chelios, the beefy Hatcher brothers, Kevin and Derian, and a group of forwards that is above average in defensive skill.

“It’s sobering to be here, after anticipating this for so long. You wanted time to speed up, but now you want it to slow down so you can savor every day,” said Richter, who is 14-19-14 for the Rangers with a 2.49 goals-against average and .908 save percentage. “The way the season has gone, this is a bit of a break for me, a motivating factor.”

Richter has played a lot this season because the Rangers lacked confidence in backup Jason Muzzatti. Not until midseason, when they summoned Dan Cloutier--who proved capable enough to win his first three games--did Richter get a break.

“In those situations, when you have a team that’s not winning, it can be difficult,” he said. “What you have to do is distill your game down to the basic things that make you successful and consequently, make the team successful. It’s almost been a help for me. You end up being a better goalie and more hungry.”

When he analyzed his game, he noticed he was staying back in his net and wasn’t moving well laterally, which left him out of position. A few practice days during the all-star break enabled him to make corrections that were immediately apparent.

“I started to follow the Rangers after the all-star break, and I saw that Mike really raised his level of play a lot,” Chelios said. “I sure was happy to see him picking it up.

“He’s a quality goalie and always put up good numbers and had a lot of success in the NHL. He’s pretty cool back there, no matter how much pressure there is.”

Richter was superb during the World Cup, defeating Canada once in the preliminary round and Russia twice before frustrating Canada again in the last two games of the final.

“What people forget is we played OK during the early games, but we learned and improved and were playing our best hockey by the time we got into the finals,” said Richter, whose 21-save performance in the second period of the decisive game ranks among the most memorable efforts in recent hockey history. “We did so much right. We had a very young, talented team with a lot of determination. We didn’t take no for an answer.”

But as much as the U.S. has tried to make the Olympic adventure a sequel to the World Cup--down to using the same lines, except for Jeremy Roenick replacing Bryan Smolinski on the second line with John LeClair and Tony Amonte--there are some key differences.

Foremost is this tournament is being held at midseason, when players are in prime shape, instead of before the NHL season. But the biggest change for Richter and his fellow goalies is the extra 15 feet in width on the international-size rinks. “Your points of reference will be different, especially along the boards,” he said. “The boards are out about seven feet. Coming down the middle it won’t affect us, but when it’s off to the side, players have much more room to generate speed and make plays. The puck is going to come to the net at the same angle. The advantage we have is we’ve got mobile defensemen who can cover a lot of ice.”

Big ice, small ice--Richter wasn’t worried about opening against a tough opponent in Sweden, the defending Olympic champion.

“At this point, we just want to play,” he said. “It’s a huge challenge, but hopefully it will shake us into getting where we want to be quicker.”