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Canadians skate past Russians in women's hockey
Also, Sweden wins round vs. Kazakhstan
By Zack Van Eyck
Deseret News Olympic specialist
WEST VALLEY CITY — Canadian goaltender Sami Jo Small missed a great opportunity Wednesday to catch up on her reading.
Or she could have sat in the E Center stands with a hot dog and a Coke and cheered on her teammates. Heck, she could've skated on the forward line and maybe scored a couple of goals.
Because her defensive-minded teammates played so well in front of her, Small just wasn't needed in Canada's preliminary-round women's hockey victory over Russia.
Small could've taken a nap in the goal crease, saving her energy for a possible Feb. 21 gold-medal showdown with the United States. Of course, she would have been awakened repeatedly by the E Center horn. It sounded seven times as top-seeded Canada (2-0) won by a 7-0 margin for the second straight game.
Russia (0-2) managed just six shots on goal, so even if Small had been watching ski jumping instead of tending goal, Canada would have won 7-6.
"We played very well defensively. We spent quite a bit of time, especially in the first part of the game, in our (offensive) zone," said Canada coach Daniele Sauvageau, whose team now is headed to the medal round.
Irina Gashennikova thought they would never leave. The Russian goalie faced a total of 60 shots, and not all of her 53 saves were made with her glove, stick or pads.
"I kind of got used to it," she insisted after surviving the barrage of flying pucks from what has been the best women's hockey team in the world for the past three years. "Now I just start feeling all this pain and I have a little bit of a headache. Tomorrow is going to be fine."
Meanwhile, Canada is trying to focus on the task at hand and not look too much at Feb. 21. That's when the top two teams in this eight-team tournament will play for the gold medal, and it would be one of the biggest stories of these Games if Canada and the U.S. do not end up in the finals.
"We can't take any team for granted. Women's hockey is getting so much better every single day, every game," Canadian Cherie Piper, whose second-period goal gave Canada a 4-0 lead, said of the competition. "We want to work hard every game, get a consistent work ethic and just keep working on the little things that are going to work against the U.S."
Danielle Goyette scored twice and five other Canadians had a goal in the win. Canada has never lost to Russia — or any other team besides the U.S. — since sanctioned international play began in 1990.
Russia didn't start playing women's hockey until 1994 and is in the Olympics for the first time. Only about 200 Russian women play competitive hockey, compared to about 50,000 in Canada.
"We very much regret that it was only this year that our team had access to quality training facilities and conditioning. We only started training with a complete group of players beginning last August," said Russian coach Viachevslav Dolgushin. "I think we are behind Canada by one year — one year of the kind of training that we ran this year."
Small, who was the emergency goaltender at the Nagano Games but didn't see action, spent the last four years preparing for her Olympic debut. And she wasn't disappointed, despite hardly working up a sweat.
"You only get the game puck as a goaltender if you get the shutout and I got the shutout so I got the game puck," she beamed afterward. "Watching as sort of a tourist last time and getting to be on the ice this time, it was real nice."
Better than catching up on her reading.
SWEDEN 7, KAZAKHSTAN 0: University of Minnesota-Duluth forward Erika Holst scored a pair of goals and assisted twice as the fourth-seeded Swedes (2-0) secured a spot in the medal round by defeating eighth-seeded Kazakhstan (0-2) at The Peaks Ice Arena.
Sweden will meet top-seeded Canada (2-0) 7 p.m. Saturday at The Peaks. A loss then would likely place the Swedes into a semifinal match against gold-medal favorite Team USA on Tuesday.
UPCOMING GAMES: The United States can claim a spot in the medal round with a win over China Thursday afternoon.
The second-seeded Americans (1-0) will play Team China (0-1) at 4 p.m. in The Peaks Ice Arena in Provo. Team USA defeated China six consecutive times in pre-Olympic play, and none of the contests were close.
Also Thursday, third-seeded Finland (1-0) will meet seventh-seeded Germany (0-1) at 11 a.m. at The Peaks. The Finns, who won the bronze medal in the '98 Games, beat Germany 5-2 in last year's Women's World Championships.
Friday, only one women's hockey game is scheduled. Fifth-seeded Russia (0-2) will take on eighth-seeded Kazakhstan (0-2) in the final game of the preliminary round for both teams. Russia defeated Kazakhstan 8-2 last year on the way to a surprising third-place finish in the world tournament.
The Russians, who came into the Olympics hoping for a bronze medal, lost 3-2 to Sweden on Monday and 7-0 to Canada on Wednesday to fall out of medal contention. The best they can do now would be fifth place.
"I think we ran out of luck here. We just couldn't win against Sweden," said Russian goalie Irina Gashennikova. "Now we want the best spot possible."
E-mail: zman@desnews.com
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February 14, 2002
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