Instead, Laviolette had to talk about another loss, this time a 5-4 setback to Russia that placed the U.S. team at 1-3-1 heading into Wednesday's quarterfinal round. The U.S. faces Finland in the second of four quarterfinal games that continues the path toward the gold medal.

"I thought we could have scored 10 goals tonight," Laviolette said in yet another post-game lecture on his team's fragile offense.

"We're here to win games," Laviolette said. "We're here to win games. It's maddening, that's the best word for it. We're doing the right things. We had opportunities. There are a lot of goals in that locker room. We're confident we can put the puck in the back of the net. I wouldn't say it's frustrating. It's more maddening than anything else. I don't think our players are frustrated. We remain confident we're going to win a hockey game tomorrow night."

Continued evidence that the U.S. team can play at the level with the other teams in the tournament, but not much proof as yet. And the verdict comes in against Finland. The players all knew the task.

"We have to take all the positives," forward Craig Conroy said. "If you lose now, you're out. We know that, we know where we stand. It's tough when you're not winning. Tomorrow is when it really counts. No more excuses. We have to find a way to win a game."

One of the positives to come out of the game was the U.S. power play. Three of the four goals came with the Russians playing a player short because of penalties. But the power play also was a nemesis. The U.S. team was guilty of some faulty passing as it worked for a short while playing with an advantage.

Both of Russia's first two goals came on a breakaways after stealing a pass near mid-ice. One led to a short handed goal by Evgeni Malkin that put Russia up 2-0 at 10:41 of the first period. Alexander Korolyuk scored Russia's first goal five seconds after Andrei Markov returned to the ice after a penalty.

A crowd of 9,378 fans watched the U.S. team play up hill most of the game. After trailing 2-1 at the end of the first period and 3-1 early in the second, the U.S. team battled back to gain a tie at three a power play goal by Scott Gomez with five minutes played in the third period and to a 4-4 tie on Erik Cole's goal with 10:38 played in the third.

Alexei Kovalev won it with a goal just more than a minute after Cole tied the score.

Both teams used second goalies, the U.S. playing Robert Esche and Russia playing Maxim Sokolov.

"I'm definitely not happy about the last goal," Esche said.