Canada might not have liked the score of its game against the Czech Republic, but it probably will be happy with the result.
By virtue of the 3-3 tie in front of 8,599 fans Monday night at the E Center, the Canadians avoided the loaded Russian team and will face Finland in the crossover quarterfinal game Wednesday.
Finland actually finished higher than Russia in the pool won by the United States, but the Russians are regarded by many as scarier than the Finns based on their firepower up front.
Not that it made much difference to Canadian captain Mario Lemieux.
“At this stage we just wanted to have a good game,” said Lemieux, who did exactly that by scoring two of Canada’s three goals after missing the previous game. “Finland has a good team. It doesn’t matter who you play in this tournament. They’re all tough teams.”
The Czechs will face the Russians in their quarterfinal game, which will be a rematch of the gold-medal contest from the Nagano Games in 1998, won by the Czechs. The game will include three Blackhawks: center Alex Zhamnov and defenseman Boris Mironov of Russia, and defenseman Jaroslav Spacek of the Czech Republic.
The winner of the Czech-Russia game plays the winner of the U.S.-Germany contest in the semifinals.
Canada’s game against Finland will be a rematch of the bronze-medal game from 1998 won by the Finns 3-2.
In this third and final game of the seeding round, Canadian coach Pat Quinn chose New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur to start in goal instead of Curtis Joseph, who plays for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who are coached by Quinn.
That decision might have ramifications for the Leafs upon a return to NHL play, especially if Quinn goes with Brodeur for the rest of the Olympics.
But Monday the decision looked sound, especially when Brodeur made a spectacular glove save on Jan Hrdina from 15 feet away in the third period.
“Hrdina was right there with the puck on his stick and I said, `Oh, no,”‘ Brodeur recalled. “But I moved my glove deep and got it.”
Brodeur faced 23 shots but had no chance on any of the goals. Martin Havlat scored twice as a direct result of Canada’s giveaways in its own zone, while Jiri Dopita banged in a shot that had caromed to him off the leg of Canadian defenseman Al MacInnis.
Dopita’s goal put the Czechs up 3-2 with less than seven minutes to go in the third period, but Joe Nieuwendyk one-timed a Theo Fleury pass at 16:36 to tie it.
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Canada enters the medal round with 3-2 win over lowly Germany that might have exposed more Canadian weaknesses than the panicky 5-2 loss to Sweden that opened the seeding round. As a result, Canadian players sound as if they are trying to talk themselves into being confident.
“I think we’re getting better each period,” Brendan Shanahan said.
“We’re a better team than we were three days ago,” Steve Yzerman said. “I get the feeling we’re close, that [goals] are going to go in.”