Bruce Bennett / Getty Images

United States captain Jamie Langenbrunner, left, celebrates after teammate Brian Rafalski (not pictured) scored one of his two goals against Canada on Sunday. Langenbrunner later scored the game-winning goal in the Americans' 5-3 upset.

updated 2:33 a.m. ET Feb. 22, 2010

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The Americans didn’t believe in miracles. They just believed.

And they pulled off the biggest Olympic hockey upset since the Miracle on Ice, stunning Canada 5-3 on Sunday to advance to the quarterfinals of an already mixed-up tournament.

Brian Rafalski scored two goals, Ryan Miller held off a flurry of shots and the Americans quieted a raucous, pro-Canada crowd that came to cheer its dream team, only to see it upstaged by a bunch of unproven kids.

One day short of the 30th anniversary of the country’s greatest hockey victory — the unfathomable win over the Soviet Union in Lake Placid — these underrated Americans were faster, more disciplined and more determined than Canada’s collection of all-stars.

Better, too.

“We know we can beat anybody now,” Rafalski said.

Canada outshot the United States 45-23 yet couldn’t badly dent Miller, the goalie the Americans felt could best stand up to all of Canada’s might. He did just that, making 42 saves in the victory of a lifetime.

“It’s probably one of the biggest games I’ve ever played,” Miller said. “When things happened we responded. We didn’t get nervous or anxious. We kept playing.”

When Ryan Kesler scored in the final minute, the few U.S. fans who managed to get seats proudly waved their American flags, all their red, white and blue suddenly visible.

“You look up and everything’s red and white — so few American flags” at the start, said U.S. coach Ron Wilson, who also led the 1996 team that upset Canada in the World Cup. “We expected a hostile environment. The intensity of the game helped, too.”

When 2006 gold medalist Sweden beat Finland 3-0, the United States was assured of being top-seeded in Wednesday’s quarterfinals, something almost no one predicted when the tournament began. Sweden is second, followed by Russia and Finland.

The United States will play either Switzerland or Belarus in the quarterfinals.

Canada, the gold-medal favorite, was expected to coast into the medal round. But now, after nearly losing to Switzerland and being outplayed on home ice by the Americans, it must win a play-in game Tuesday against Germany to reach the quarterfinals.

After that, Canada likely will meet Russia, a matchup that wasn’t expected until the gold-medal game.

“Just like everybody in this tournament, we’re playing to survive,” coach Mike Babcock said. “If you lose, you go home.”

The Canadians still could win a gold medal, but now face a much tougher road that would include an additional game and a more difficult quarterfinal-round opponent.

“We’re here to be the last ones standing and we’re still alive,” goalie Martin Brodeur said. “We’re throwing 45 shots at these goalies and they are making stops facing forward, backward, sideways. Eventually we’ll be more successful.”

Chris Drury, a former Little League World Series star, and Jamie Langenbrunner scored to put the U.S. up 4-2 and hold off a relentless late surge by Canada that included Sidney Crosby’s power play goal with 3:09 remaining.

Miller made an exceptional save on Rick Nash’s shot from the slot with two minutes left to preserve it, and Kesler put it away by swiping in an empty-net goal with one hand with 45 seconds remaining.

“He made some really key saves in the third period and was the difference,” Canada forward Eric Staal said, referring to Miller, the Buffalo Sabres goalie.

Rafalski, Langenbrunner and Drury are three of the older, steadying hands on one of the youngest U.S. Olympic teams in history, one that averages 5 years younger per man than the 2006 team that didn’t medal in Turin.

“It’s great for our young players to get a win of this caliber against that type of team,” Rafalski said. “Going forward, it sets the bar very high for us. It lets those guys know that we can possibly win this thing.”

The U.S., supposedly a tier below the Canadians, Russians and Swedes, got exactly the start it wanted. Rafalski’s slap shot from the right point 41 seconds into the game deflected off Crosby’s stick and past Brodeur, the best goalie of his generation but not the better goalie in the game.

“We wanted a good start but that was better than expected for sure,” forward Patrick Kane said.