Preliminary Round
April 28, 2004
Prague, CZE

By Alan Adams

PRAGUE – Mike Babcock was much happier with Canada’s effort in a 3-1 win over Switzerland and he feels the Canadians can only get better by the day.
“We think we can get better and we really believe that,” said Babcock after Wednesday’s game. “We think we can get a lot better and I think our guys now believe now if we play our game we will be fine.”
The Canadians sputtered in the first period but talked things through in the intermission and came out a much different team in the second.
The Canadians owed the middle period, and Dany Heatley scored 44 seconds after the opening faceoff – the first of two goals on the night - to put Canada ahead 1-0. The Canadians then started laying on the body and the Swiss were never in it
“In the second period they were not holding on to the puck as much and they were just chipping and trying to give their trouble to somebody else because we were coming so strong,” said Daniel Briere. “That is the kind of game Canada needs to play and that is the type of game we played last year to get us to the gold medal. There is no secret. That is what Canadians do.”
“We always knew we could do it and we know the guys in there could do it but we had to get going,” said Brendan Morrison, who had Canada’s other goal.” We could not wait that much longer. Games get more important each step of the way and you want to make sure you are building momentum and getting better every day.”
The victory means Canada carries three points into the qualifying round, its win over France discarded because the French didn't advance. The Swiss advance with only one point while surprising Austria has two.
The Canadians will face Arturs Irbe and Latvia n Friday, Olie Kolzig and Germany on Sunday and Jaromir Jagr and the host Czech Republic on Monday. The Czech-Canada game will definitely be the hottest ticket in town.
The Swiss had their game in full gear and were definitely the better team in the opening 20 minutes. But they ran into a wall in the form of Roberto Luongo, who is a finalist for the Vezina Trophy which honors the NHL’s top goalie.
“We really needed to play a good team game and I think this was our best effort,” said Luongo.
The Canadians headed to the dressing room outshot 12-6 and outchanced in the opening period and Babcock then shuffled his forward lines, putting Brenden Morrow with Heatley and Daniel Briere. The trio scored 44 seconds into the second period, with Heatley scoring on a rebound.
The Canadians came on strong and the Swiss were outmatched.
“"They're a strong team getting stronger every game," said Swiss Head Coach Ralph Krueger.
Brendan Morrison made it 2-0 when he scored on a wraparound at 11:07 and Heatley collected his second of the night 3:19 into the third period.
“There is no reason why we can’t repeat as champions as long as we play hard every night,” says Luongo.
Canada is unbeaten all-time versus the Swiss at the world championship at 21-0-2, but the gap has definitely narrowed.
“It is a long tournament and we want to get better every game,” says Heatley. “We took a big step tonight.”
In Wednesday’s other games, the United States moved on to the qualifying round with a 7-1 win over Ukraine. With the win, the Americans avoided going to the relegation round for a second straight year. Russia beat Japan 6-1, the Czech Republic beat Germany 5-1 and Slovakia beat Finland 5-2.
Thursday is an off day in the 16-team competition and the schedule resumes Friday with the 12-team qualifying round, with eight teams then moving on to the medal round starting next Wednesday.
The Canadians will face Arturs Irbe and Latvia on Friday, Olie Kolzig and Germany on Sunday and Jaromir Jagr and the host Czech Republic on Monday. The Czech-Canada game will definitely be the hottest ticket in town.