Gold Medal
Spengler Cup
December 31, 2003
Davos, SUI

by Paul Romanuk

Team Canada powered past Switzerland (represented by Davos) 7-4 to win the 2003 Spengler Cup Championship.  It was the tenth title in the history of the tournament for Canada, and their second in a row.

“I can't say enough about how proud I am of our guys,” said Canadian coach Gary Green.  “I knew we'd respond with a great Canadian effort today.  We were facing a lot of adversity.  We had guys hooked up to IV bags trying to rehydrate because they were battling the flu.”

Canada looked flat at the start of the game and was put in a tough spot when defenceman Jame Pollock took a roughing penalty 51 seconds into the game. Davos responded with a quick power play goal from Eric Landry and led 1-0 after just 1:05.

“Some teams I've played on, when you're hurting like we were, that would happen and you'd be thinking ‘Oh no'”, said Team Canada forward Stacey Roest.  “But with this team it was, like, ‘OK, no problem, we'll get that back'”.

Canada did get it back when Hnat Domenichelli combined with Mike Maneluk and Dixon Ward 54 seconds later to tie the game.  Veteran defenceman Mark Astley jumped up into the play on a shorthanded situation at 10:54 to put Canada up 2-1.  Canadian-born Todd Elik, playing for his club team Davos, tied the score at 11:47 before Maneluk blasted home his first goal of the tournament at 17:23 of the first period to put Canada up 3-2 after one.

Canadian goaltender Jamie Hodson was brilliant in the first period while the team found it's legs.  He faced 20 shots, most of them in the first ten minutes.  Hodson, playing in his second Spengler tourmanet in a row, tried not to worry about all the players on his team who were sick.

“I didn't really think about it much,” said Hodson.  “I knew we had some guys with the flu but I just wanted to be ready.  It was great to be able to play in the final this year after being a part of the team last year too.”

Maneluk was one of at least eight Team Canada players suffering from the flu bug.

“I've been on some teams and seen some pretty nasty bugs, but this was about the worst I've ever seen,” said Canadian defenceman Jamie Heward.“We had some guys that were really hurting.”

Elik tied the score for Davos early in the second period before Paul DiPietro scored for Canada on a 3 on nothing breakaway.  The Swiss were caught on a horendous line change and Dipietro, Jeff Toms and Lonny Bohonos walked in alone from the blue line in.  Bohonos fed it off to DiPietro to put Canada up 4-3 after two periods.

Bohonos set DiPietro up again early in the third period.  Swiss defenceman Beat Forster was stripped of the puck by Bohonos right in front of the Davos goal.  Bohonos quickly passed over to DiPietro, who scored his second of the game to put Canada up 5-3.  Toms and Shantz, with an empty net goal, rounded out the scoring for Canada. Michel Riesen added a late goal for Switzerland.

Veteran Canadian forward Dixon Ward played what could be the final game of his career.  His contract with Rapperswill,  in the Swiss Elite League, expired.  He's decided to head back to Canada to consider his future.

“When you get older you do it for more than just yourself,” said Ward.   “It meant so much to me to have my family over here to share this.  I was on the Spengler Cup team in 2001 and that was great.  But this one today is really special.”

NOTES:  The tournament All Star Team featured two Canadian players: defenceman Jame Pollock and forward Stacey Roest.  The tournament MVP
was Davos forward, and long time NHL player, Oleg Petrov.....Hnat Domenichelli led Team Canada in scoring with 4-4-8 in five games.....It was the fourth year in a row that Canada met Davos in the final.  They are 2-2 in those games.....Canada's record in the last three Spengler Cup tournaments is 13-2-0.