It’s Canada and surprising Germans in semifinal
GANGNEUNG — Team Canada’s Olympic hockey journey just got a little longer, and a little stranger.
It took a while but the Canadian men — with backup goalie Kevin Poulin called on to replace the injured Ben Scrivens — finally figured out Finland’s neutral zone trap and rode Maxim Noreau’s third-period goal for a 1-0 victory Wednesday. That moves Canada one win away from the gold-medal game, with only unheralded Germany standing in its way.
The Germans, seeded 10th in the draw, upset Group C winner Sweden 4-3 in overtime in the other late quarter-final. The win snapped Germany’s 12-game losing streak to Sweden in Olympic and world championship play, improving its record to 2-14-0.
The Czechs meet the Russian entry in Friday’s other semifinal. The Russians downed Norway, 6-1, and the Czechs edged the U.S., 3-2, in a shootout, in the other quarter-finals.
Wednesday’s developments means Canada will play for a medal whatever happens, with either gold or bronze on the line.
While parity was expected in Pyeongchang with NHL stars on the other side of the world, not many would have foreseen a Canada-Germany semifinal. Told that Germany awaited Canada, centre Eric O’Dell started to say perfect, but then caught himself.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said, drawing laughs as he stopped midword and returned to the party line. “Nice. We’re ready for any team, and every team from here going forward is going to be
tough.”
Canada coach Willie Desjardins was also surprised to see the Swedes to go down.
“But saying that, Germany must be playing well,” he said. “You don’t get luck in this tournament. And Germany’s got some confidence and they’re going to be a tough team to play against.”
Canada is 27-1-1 against Germany in Olympic and world championship play, winning the last 11 meetings. Last time out, the Canadians won 2-1 in the quarter-finals of last year’s worlds.
Germany, whose NHLers number less than 10, are 3-2 in the tournament with the wins coming at the right time. They lost 5-2 to Finland and 1-0 to Sweden before beating Norway 2-1 in the
preliminary round. Then they upset Switzerland 2-1 in overtime.
After a lacklustre scoreless first period, the Canadian men turned it up a notch in the second and outshot the Finns 18-10.
The breakthrough goal came 55 seconds into the third period with Noreau blasting a point shot stickside past Mikko Koskinen on a set play after a clean O’Dell faceoff win.
“I saw it from the bench. It had eyes,” captain Chris Kelly said of the shot. “A fantastic (faceoff) win by (O’Dell). That’s kind of what it takes. Just one play and that’s the difference.”
“That was a bomb,” added defenceman Chris Lee.