Canada blanks Belarus in Olympic tune-up

Kevin Poulin is giving GM Sean Burke and the rest of the Canadian men’s Olympic hockey team 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 Latvia on Sunday. It was Poulin’s second straight international shutout. “Right now our identity has been our defence and goaltending,” Burke said. “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.” Maxim Lapierre of Brossard, Que., and Andrew Ebbett of Vernon scored the goals.