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Canada hits stride in edging Finns
By Jody Genessy
Deseret News Olympic specialist
WEST VALLEY CITY — Wayne Gretzky had it all wrong. The conspiracy isn't against Canada, it's for Canada.
At least that's how this Olympic hockey tournament — which Canada is still alive and well in after a 2-1 quarterfinal win over Finland on Wednesday at the E Center — appears to be working out.
It's purely coincidental — and no easy task at that — but Canada's route to the gold-medal game has certainly turned out to be less intimidating than it could have been.
Canada got Finland — the weakest-on-paper of the six Dream Teams — in the quarterfinals instead of Russia.
Better yet (maybe), Canada gets Belarus — the biggest and luckiest underdog this side of that Australian speedskater — in the semifinals instead of Sweden.
No one from Canada is complaining now, eh.
They shouldn't be. Their NHL heroes, who struggled somewhat early on in the Olympics, are starting to play as well as advertised. And now the Canadians have a sweet semifinal situation against outmatched Belarus at noon Friday in the E Center.
The Canadians aren't looking at the Belarus game as a gimme. They learned better watching the end of the Sweden upset.
It might have been harder against Russia, who knows? But it was wasn't against Finland.
Joe Sakic got the Canadians off on the right skate with a goal three minutes into the contest.
They added to their score in the second when Mario Lemieux played a quick game of give-and-go with Steve Yzerman. While zipping down the left side, Yzerman dished the puck to Lemieux in the center and quickly got it back from Super Mario and buried the puck in the wide-open net.
Before the play could be announced over the loudspeaker in French and English, however, Finland countered with a quick-strike Niklas Hagman goal. The Finns failed to get the equalizer in the third, though.
So, were the Canadians inspired by Gretzky's us-against-the-world banter from Monday?
"We're not here making a war with other countries," said Canada goalie Martin Brodeur, who made 18 saves. "We're here to win a gold medal."
E-MAIL: jody@desnews.com
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February 21, 2002
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