Canada blanks Belarus 2-0 in Olympic tune-up

Goaltending looking good in exhibition action with consecutive shutouts

RIGA, Latvia — Kevin Poulin is giving GM Sean Burke and the rest of the Canadian men’s Olympic hockey hierarchy plenty to ponder.

The Montreal native stopped 29 shots to lead Canada to a 2-0 pre-Olympic win over Belarus on Tuesday. Poulin’s performance came after veteran Ben Scrivens of Spruce Grove, Alta., made 27 saves in a 2-0 victory over Lavtia on Sunday.

It was Poulin’s second straight international shutout. He stopped 36 shots as Canada beat Switzerland 3-0 to capture a third straight Spengler Cup title on Dec. 31.

“Right now our identity has been our defence and goaltending,” said Burke. “We know we’re not going to be a high-scoring team, so we’re going to have to play very competitively, we’re going to have to be hard to play against.

“We’re going to need good goaltending and limit the other team’s chances. Our goaltending had to probably be better these last two games than we’d like it to be . . . but it sure is nice, when we’ve needed it, that it’s been there.”

Maxim Lapierre of Brossard, Que., and Andrew Ebbett of Vernon had the goals for Canada, which was outshot 24-12 over the final two periods and 29-25 overall. The Canadians finished 0-3 on the power play but did successfully kill off all six of Belarus’s man-advantage opportunities.

“You want to build as much momentum as you can,” said Canadian forward Brandon Kozun of Calgary. “Obviously there’s a lot of things we can improve upon but a win is a win.”

Canada will play its final pre-Olympic game versus Sweden in Incheon, South Korea, on Sunday. The team will open preliminaryround play at the Winter Games on Feb. 15 against Switzerland with a decidedly tough decision to make in goal.