April 29, 2002
Karlstad Sweden

(Apr 29) KARLSTAD, Sweden (CP) - Daniel Cleary of the Edmonton Oilers scored two power-play goals in the second period to lead Canada to a 5-0 win over Italy on Monday at the world hockey championships.

Captain Ryan Smyth of the Oilers, Ray Whitney of the Florida Panthers and Andy McDonald of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks also scored for Canada (2-0-0), who had three power-play goals in the penalty-filled contest.

Marty Turco of the Dallas Stars stopped 24 shots for the shutout and looked sharp in his first start, particularly when handling the puck - a tremendous advantage on the larger European ice surface. He made several strong passes to forwards streaking through the neutral zone.

There were 14 penalties in all - only five to Canada. The Canadians had only four penalties in Saturday's 4-1 win over Latvia, an encouraging sign for a team that traditionally has had difficulty staying out of the penalty box in this tournament.

Canada's first tough game of the tournament comes Tuesday when it faces the United States (TSN, 2 p.m. EDT), with the winner taking first place in Group D and carrying four points into the qualifying round. Points against the lone team who doesn't reach the qualifying round aren't counted.

The U.S. knocked Canada out in last year's quarter-finals in Germany but this is a weaker team, devoid of veteran defencemen Eric Weinrich and Phil Housley and last year's overtime hero against Canada, centre Darby Hendrickson.Italy, who lost 5-2 to the U.S. on Saturday, had difficulty maintaining any sustained pressure in the Canadian zone throughout the game. The slower Italian forwards were quickly stripped off the puck were pounded into the boards by Canada's defence.

Cleary scored his power-play goals 1:10 apart in the second. He buried a rebound past a helpless Rosati at 16:13 and rifled a slapshot from the top of the left faceoff circle at 17:23 that knocked Rosati's stick out of his right hand and went in.

Smyth made it 4-0 with just over five minutes left in the game when his wraparound shot barely got past the goal-line behind Brunetta, who insisted the puck didn't go in.
Whitney flipped a shot over a sprawled Brunetta with 1:58 left to complete the scoring after taking a pass from Peter Schaefer on a 2-on-1.

McDonald opened the scoring 5:57 into the second while Canada was enjoying a two-man advantage. The Mighty Ducks rookie tucked a rebound behind Rosati after the Italian goalie kicked out a powerful point shot from Eric Brewer of the Edmonton Oilers, who had two assists in the game.

Game Summary