St. Louis Blues right wing T.J. Oshie boosted American patriotism Saturday, leading team USA to victory over the Russians at the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, by scoring four goals on six shots in a shootout.

Oshie, born in Mount Vernon, Wash., has never scored more than 19 goals in a single NHL season since debuting with St. Louis in 2008. But he was added, albeit late, to the U.S. men's hockey team by coach Dan Bylsma due to his prowess in shootouts, according to various reports filed subsequent to the Americans' 3-2 win Saturday.

American goalie Jonathan Quick's glove save on an Ilya Kovalchuk shot in round eight of the shootout gave Oshie, 27, an opportunity to win it, and he'd do just that with a forehand in between Russian goalie Sergei Bobrovsky's pads.

Oshie, whose family relocated to Warroad, Minnesota, when he was a teenager, saved the U.S. from defeat by scoring in rounds five and six. You started to get the feeling, after his second straight game-saving goal in the shootout, that something special was brewing, that a star was being born.

Though no medal was on the line in this chapter of the U.S. and Russia's storied hockey rivalry, Oshie's clutch performance will be remembered in large part because of the calm demeanor and slow pace with which he'd close in on Bobrovsky before employing lethal creativity and precision on his shots.

With the world watching, the 5-foot-11, 194-pounder stepped up in a high-pressure situation and came through. What can I say? The guy apparently has that which he skates on running through his veins.