2002 – CANADA 7, BELARUS 1
Steve Yzerman had a goal and two assists, Mario Lemieux added two helpers
and seven different Canadians found the back of the net to lead Canada to
the Olympic gold medal game with a semifinal win over Belarus.
The Europeans had earned their spot in the final four with a quarter-final
victory over Sweden, considered one of the biggest upsets in international
hockey history, but there would be no repeat against the Canadians.
“The night before the game, we had a team dinner and talked about (playing
for gold),” says Canadian forward Ryan Smyth. “We knew we were lucky to be
Olympians, but we were now one game away from getting a chance to bring
back a gold medal. Obviously with our history, we knew how exciting that
could be.”
Canada jumped out to an early lead when Yzerman scored at 6:05, but Belarus
fought back to tie the game seven minutes later, with defenceman Ruslan
Salei beating Martin Brodeur.
That would be the last puck to find its way past Brodeur, and the Canadian
offence took over from there, starting with Eric Brewer’s game-winning goal
at 17:25 of the opening period.
Scott Niedermayer doubled the lead early in the second period and Paul
Kariya gave Canada even more breathing room before 40 minutes were
complete. With the Canadians dominating Belarus, holding a 32-9 advantage
in shots on goal after two, the third period was anti-climactic.
Simon Gagné, Eric Lindros and Jarome Iginla added goals in the final frame
to complete the rout.
In all, seven Canadians scored goals, and 13 had at least a point – a total
team effort.
“A lot of lines contributed in that game so it helped everyone settle in,”
Smyth says. “Guys just seemed to find the right chemistry all through that
tournament.”
OTHER GAMES
1952 – Canada continued its stifling defence, allowing Sweden just nine
shots on goal – the third time in five games the Canadians kept their
opponents under 10 – but escape with a narrow 3-2 victory to remain
unbeaten.
1960 – Fred Etcher scored 12 seconds apart in the first period, the fastest
two Olympic goals ever by a Canadian, and Jack Douglas had a hat trick to
help Canada hammer Germany 12-0 in its first medal round game.
1980 – John Devaney scored for Canada, but the three Stastny brothers –
Anton, Marion and Peter – combined for 11 points in Czechoslovakia’s 6-1
win in the fifth-place game in Lake Placid.
1988 – Merlin Malinowski and Serge Boisvert scored goals and Sean Burke
made 28 saves in Canada’s 2-2 tie with Sweden to close out the preliminary
round and leave the Canadians and Swedes tied with Finland atop Group A.
2006 – Alexander Ovechkin and Alexei Kovalev scored third-period goals, and
Canada was shut out for the third time in the tournament, falling 2-0 to
Russia in the quarter-finals in Torino.
2010 – Canada booked its spot in the women’s Olympic gold medal game for
the fourth time in as many tries, getting a goal and an assist from Meghan
Agosta, two assists from Jayna Hefford and 11 saves from Shannon Szabados
to beat Finland 5-0 in the semifinals.