CANADA CRUISES PAST CHINA, WINS ITSELF A REMATCH
PLAYOFF SYSTEM FORCES TEAM INTO QUALIFICATION-ROUND GAME VS. HOSTS
BEIJING • In a watered-down Olympic tournament in terms of talent, perhaps there’s a place for host nation, China.
But just barely.
That said, a team of mostly North Americans, including B.C. captain Brandon Yip (now known as Ye Jinguang), seemed to be just what Team Canada needed on Sunday night at National Indoor Stadium.
Perhaps dragged down to the level of their opponent, Canada was sloppy at times but still scored a 5-0 win to finish off group play with a 2-1 record.
We’re still waiting to see the best of a Canadian team that was hastily cobbled together when the NHL withdrew its players from the tournament in December.
Though the result was never in doubt, the lessskilled Chinese team was pesky enough at times and generated some serious zone presence in the Canadian end for much of the second period.
The loss to the U.S. a day earlier and some surprises in other pools means that Canada will need to win a qualification-round game against China to move on to the quarter-final.
A rematch against the overmatched Chinese might not be the worst thing, affording the work-in-progress Canadians another opportunity to improve.
“Having to play in the qualification rounds gives us the opportunity to play another game and to improve as a team,” coach Claude Julien said. “You have to remember we had no pre-tournament games. We hope to use it to our advantage.”
The first meeting with China had a beer-league feel to it at times, with the host nation often lazy in chasing down loose pucks. For comic relief, at the start of the second, Chinese goalie Paris O’brien went to the wrong crease before officials set him straight.
Overall, though, the team didn’t get blown completely off of the ice, which surely would have been the case if Nhlers were here.
It was a scrappy game overall, but not the easiest to measure whether the Canadians had improved notably from the 4-2 loss to the U.S.
They’ll have one more chance to do so against the scrappy host side.
GAME ON
Canada jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the opening period with goals from Ben Street, Adam Tambellini and Eric O’dell, who has been one of the more impressive Canadian forwards through three games ... Because of the back-to-back and some suspect play in Saturday’s loss to the U.S., Eddie Pasquale didn’t dress in this one. Matt Tomkins got the nod and made 26 saves to earn the shutout ... Forward Jordan Weal was clipped in the ear in the first period and exited to receive stitches before returning in the second ... Josh Ho-sang, who struggled in the loss to the U.S., was demoted to 13th-forward status. That might have been a wake-up call as he earned an assist with a nice setup on O’dell’s goal, his first of two helpers on the night.
POWER PLAY
The deeper this tournament goes, the more defenceman Owen Power will be hard to forget on Team Canada.
The 19-year-old first-overall pick by the Buffalo Sabres is smooth and smart with the puck and not shy to jump into the play on offence.
Canadian coach Claude Julien likes giving the poised youngster powerplay time and was trying to get him on the ice at the same time as captain Eric Staal and fellow 19-year-old Mason Mctavish.
The special teams time paid off for Power, who scored his first of the Olympics with the extra attacker to give Canada a 5-0 lead in the third.
ELIMINATION TIME
With group play done, a refresher of the format for the 12-team tournament.
Divided into three groups of four teams, the top team from each group and the best second-place team advance to the qualification round. The remaining eight square off for the next four spots in the quarters.
China, the 32nd-ranked team in the world, qualified as the host nation, but has a lineup loaded with Canadian and American players.
Canada slipped to the No. 5 seed after Sweden engineered a three-goal comeback against Finland and won it in overtime.
The U.S., which defeated Germany on Sunday, advances as the No. 1 seed. Rounding out the top four are Finland, Russia and Sweden.