Canada and Russia Blowout Prelim Opponents

In the opening day of Men’s Ice Hockey tournament in Vancouver, both Team Canada and Team Russia came out strong, scoring eight goals each against their preliminary round opponents (Latvia, Norway) in landslide victories.

Canada shutout Team Norway by a stunning 8-0 margin, limiting the Norwegians to 15 total shots on goal.

“After a surprisingly scoreless first period, Canada broke open its pool play opener against Norway with a pair of goals in the first five minutes of the second period. The hosts went on win going away, 8-0, in front of a raucous red-clad crowd of 16,652 inside Canada Hockey Place.

Jarome Iginla and Dany Heatley staked Canada to a 2-0 lead before Mike Richards added a goal later in the second period. Iginla would score two more before the final buzzer for a hat trick, while Ryan Getzlaf, Heatley and Corey Perry added goals in the third period for the final result.

Roberto Luongo went swaths of time without seeing much action, but he was perfect on 15 shots and Canada killed off five penalties. Sidney Crosby and Iginla finished with a game-high three points.

“When you talk to the people in the media or people outside hockey, they will tell you that you are supposed to win the game. But I have been to a lot of these events and it’s not always like that,” Canada coach Mike Babcock said. “I think it’s important for you to not just go out and score five goals in the first period. You have to battle through some adversity. The last time a Canadian team won in the Olympics, they lost to Sweden. That was the adversity they needed to get her going and to understand how everyday is going to be. Ideally, or hopefully we don’t need that.” {NHL.com}

Later in the evening, the Russians defeated Team Latvia 8-2, on goals from Ovechkin, Radulov, Zaripov, Kovalchuk, Malkin, and Morozov.

“Fedorov used his veteran savvy and still-pumping legs to set up goals in the first 7:36 by fellow KHLers Danis Zaripov and Alexander Radulov.

On the first – on his line’s first shift of the tournament just 2:38 into the game — Fedorov held onto the puck with 22 years worth of professional poise until Latvian defenseman Guntis Galvins came to him, leaving Zaripov open to convert his feathery saucer pass across the goalmouth. On the 2-0 goal, Fedorov slashed through the Latvian defense to take a pass from Dmitry Kalinin and then whip a shot on goal that produced a juicy rebound for Radulov to convert. No more Russian nerves.

“It’s the first game and guys were a little bit nervous,” said Russian center Pavel Datsyuk, who once learned at Fedorov’s knee with the Detroit Red Wings. “Once we started getting some goals, we started feeling a lot better.”

And on the two occasions when Latvia began to feel good about itself – perhaps dreaming of repeating its opening-game performance of four years before when it stunningly tied Team USA, 3-3 – Ovechkin struck.

The first time, with 35 seconds left in a first period that had settled down, Ovechkin got open between the circles. He then one-timed a puck past overmatched Latvian goaltender Edgars Masalskis after fellow Washington Capital Alexander Semin had pick-pocketed Galvins and fed a perfect pass.

Then, after a goal by Herberts Vasiljevs 33 seconds into broke the spell of Russian goaltender Evgeni Nabokov and pulled Latvia within 4-1, Ovechkin struck again. Only 26 seconds later, Ovechkin wheeled down the left side and whipped a rising wrist shot over Masalskis to pretty much end any suspense about the outcome and touch off a three-goals-in-2:05 Russian blitz.

“Oh yeah, you know, it’s mentally important,” Ovechkin said of scoring so soon after Latvia had. “After that goal, we just played better and better.”

You could argue that Canada and Russia blitzed vastly inferior teams, and you’d probably be right. Team Russia and Team Canada won’t get much of a challenge until later in the tournament – likely at the hands of Sweden, Finland, Slovakia, Czech Republic or the United States. Either case, they were both really fun games to watch for sure – lots of offense, lots of talent.

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