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Czech Republic 3, Canada 3, tie
Associated Press
WEST VALLEY CITY — Rarely has a tie felt more like a victory for Canada.
Joe Nieuwendyk scored with 3 1/2 minutes left after Mario Lemieux scored twice as Canada rallied for a much-needed 3-3 tie with the Czech Republic in the Olympic tournament on Monday.
Not only did the much-hyped but previously disappointing Canadians gain some momentum by tying the defending gold medalists, they gained what seems a much more favorable quarterfinal matchup on Wednesday.
Rather than playing Russia, which was upset 3-1 by Finland earlier Monday, Canada now plays Finland while the Czechs — only 1-1-1 so far — go against the Russians. The other quarterfinals send the unbeaten United States against Germany and Sweden against Belarus.
Canada seemed headed for a third consecutive poor game in its national sport when Jiri Dopita scored with 6:43 remaining to give the Czechs, playing their second tough game in less than 24 hours, a 3-2 lead. The Czechs lost 2-1 Sunday to unbeaten Sweden.
But the Canadians, playing with an intensity that was missing in their 5-2 loss to Sweden and 3-2 victory over relatively weak Germany, rallied for the tying goal. Theo Fleury and Ed Jovanovski kept cycling the puck in the Czechs' end, allowing Nieuwendyk to get free for a wrister near the edge of the right circle that Dominik Hasek couldn't stop.
Hasek, known as the Dominator, hasn't been the nearly unbeatable goalie he was in Nagano, and the result is the Czechs now must beat Russia just to get to the semifinals.
The tie was a visible relief to Team Canada executive director Wayne Gretzky, whose face has clearly shown the strain of the team's struggles so far. Gretzky spent Monday's game leaning over the railing of an upper deck box, his face grimacing with the game's varying twists and turns.
Canada got a huge lift from the productive return of Lemieux, its captain and Hall of Famer who was scratched from a 3-2 victory Sunday over Germany with a hip injury. Two days before, Lemieux seemed in so much pain he couldn't even skate upright during the loss to Sweden, a game Gretzky called "a disaster."
On Monday, Lemieux was skating with his usual speed and power and the results quickly showed. He scored the game's first goal at 9:11 of the first period, skating in from the blue line before squeezing a wrist shot past Hasek before the goalie could react.
Martin Havlat, moved up to Jaromir Jagr's No. 1 line, gave the Czechs a 2-1 lead by scoring late in the first period and early in the second, both on wrist shots from the slot that eluded Martin Brodeur.
But Lemieux tied it — with the aid of instant replay — at 18:49 of the second.
Lemieux, working a 2-on-1 break with Steve Yzerman, shot a hard wrister that Hasek gloved. But the momentum of the shot carried Hasek across the goal line, and Lemieux immediately shot his arms up to signal goal.
However, referee Bill McCreary did not immediately signal a goal, and it took several minutes of video tape review before the goal was counted.
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February 18, 2002
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