Oh. Canada?
The country’s greatest player and hockey leader melted down in an interview as publicly as its team did on the ice, but now its team suddenly has transformed its leaden performances into a shot at the gold medal.
After a 7-1 trouncing of upstart Belarus on Friday at the E Center–Canada had 51 shots to Belarus’ 14–the Canadian team earned a spot in Sunday’s championship game against the United States, keeping alive Team Canada Executive Director Wayne Gretzky’s dictum that “nothing less than gold will do.”
Less than a week ago, after his team had gone 1-1-1 in the seeding round, Gretzky said, “The whole world wants us to lose.”
But the Canadians have beaten Finland in the quarterfinals and Belarus in the semis, and now they have a date Sunday with the U.S. to claim the world’s hockey supremacy.
“We came here and didn’t even have a full practice,” defenseman Rob Blake said of the flak Canada caught last week, “and we’re supposed to beat someone 10-0.”
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They almost did that to Belarus, the little breakaway republic that could. The Belarussians upset highly favored Sweden in the quarterfinals behind amazing goalie Andrei Mezin, who bounced around five minor-league teams in North America.
Friday, however, Mezin was bounced by Canada after giving up four goals in the first 34 minutes, doing well to stop 23-of-27 shots.
“It’s a great team,” Mezin said. “They wanted to win and they did win. I think the result should be like that. We were tired and maybe we weren’t ready. We were tired mentally.
“In the first period we tried to fight, but they controlled the game. We didn’t have a chance. Three shots on goal in the first period [compared with 17 for Canada] tells the story.”
To show you how well the Canadians have come together, their seven goals came from seven players–two by defensemen and the other five from at least one skater on all four lines.
“We’re where we want to be,” defenseman Adam Foote said.
Plus goalie Martin Brodeur heads into the gold-medal match having allowed just one goal in each of his last two games.
“I don’t know if we’ll win Sunday,” Canada coach Pat Quinn said, “but we plan to.”