Canada Impressive Against Finland

For perhaps the first time in the Olympic tournament, Canadians were happy to brag about how well Team Canada played in a 2-1 victory over Finland. Canada needed to be that good, as Finland was equally as impressive and unfortunate not to win.

Joe Sakic scored early, Steve Yzerman notched the second-period winner and Canada's hockey hopes of gold took a giant leap forward with a 2-1 victory over Finland in the quarter-finals of the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Canada outshot the Finns 34-19, including 15-5 in the opening period. Joe Sakic set the tone when he took a nice return pass on a give-and-go rush with Simon Gagne and beat goalie Jani Hurme with a backhand shot that trickled into the net just 3 minutes into the game.

Another beautiful give-and-go on the rush produced what ended up being the game-winning goal. Steve Yzerman and Mario Lemieux completed a beautiful passing play when Yzerman's scored at 15:49 of the second period.

Canada had little time to breathe easy though, as the 2-0 lead was halved just 20 seconds later. Niklas Hagman tapped in a pass from Tomi Kallio from the edge of the crease.

 "That goal was a momentum killer," Yzerman said. "We were feeling good until that point."

From that point on both teams played conservative hockey, sending only one forward in on the forecheck, and being careful not to allow any odd-man rushes to their opponent. Canada closed the door and goalie Martin Brodeur was sharp when he had to be, specifically in the third period.

Game Summary

 
Box Score Canada

1

1

0

2
  Finland

0

1

0

1

First Period
Goals :
CAN • Sakic, Joe (Gagne, Simon) - 03:00

Penalties:
None

Second Period

Goals :
CAN • Yzerman, Steve (Lemieux, Mario) - 35:49
FIN • Hagman, Niklas (Kallio, Tomi / Jokinen, Olli) - 36:09

Penalties:
FIN • Selanne, Teemu / 2 min. / INTRF / 25:52

Third Period
Goals:
None

Penalties :
CAN • JOVANOVSKI, Ed / 2 min./ BOARD / 46:10
Goaltenders Canada -BRODEUR, Martin
  Finland -HURME, Jani
   

First

Second

Third

Final
Shots on Goal by Canada

15

14

5

34
  Finland

5

8

6

19
Officials Referee

-LARUE, Dennis
  Linesmen

-CVIK, Michael
-LAUFF, Rudolf
Attendance -8,599