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From the Olympics Toword Tomorrow
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Canada hangs on to beat Sweden 3-2 in Olympic hockey
14:45 BLR 2-5 USA
18:45 SWE 2-3 CAN
U.S. downs qualifier Belarus 5-2
The U.S. men's ice hockey team picked up its first win of the Nagano Olympic Winter Games with a 5-2 victory over Belarus on Saturday at the Big Hat ice arena.
On the heels of a 4-2 loss to Sweden on Friday evening, the U.S. squad had its hands full with the Belarus team that managed to stay within one goal of their opponents until midway through the third period.
The U.S. team relied on four power-play goals, two of which came with a two-man advantage, to defeat Belarus which is competing in its first Olympic ice hockey tournament and qualified for the final round of competition by winning last week's preliminary round-robin meet.
Adam Deadmarsh, who plays for the Colorado Avalanche in the North American National Hockey League (NHL), scored with under two minutes left in the game taking a nice drop pass from Bill Guerin right in front the Belarus net to make it 5-2 for the U.S.
With Sergei Erkovich off for boarding, Brett Hull of the St.Louis Blues put the U.S. up 4-2 when he scored the fourth power-play goal for the U.S. at 13:45 of the third period blasting a hard slap shot past Belarus goalkeeper Andrei Mezin.
Belarus made it 3-2 early in the third period as Vasili Pankov fired a low wrist shot after only 27 seconds into the period, beating U.S. goalie Mike Richter from long range low on the glove side.
The U.S. scored a third power-play goal, going up 3-1, at 9:06 of the second period when John LeClair of the Philadelphia Flyers made a drop pass to New York Ranger Brian Leetch, who scored on a wrist shot from the face-off circle.
Belarus got on the scoreboard at 18:02 of the first period. Viktor Karachun picked up a rebound in front of the net and tucked it home behind Richter, also of the Rangers, to pull Belarus within one goal.
Belarus was in penalty trouble in the first period and it cost them two goals.
The U.S. went up 2-0 on a two-man advantage when another Ranger Pat Lafontaine banked in a shot off the pad of the Belarus goalkeeper from the side of the net.
Belarus got caught for too many men on the ice at 7:24 of the first and then Karachun was sent off for holding the stick at 8:50, giving the U.S. another two-man advantage.
Lafontaine won the face-off and got the puck back to captain Chris Chelios of the Chicago Blackhwaks who fired a low slap shot from the point beating a screened Mezin between the legs. (Kyodo News)
Canada hangs on to beat Sweden 3-2
Canada scored three unanswered goals in the second period and held off a furious comeback bid to defeat Sweden 3-2 on Saturday in the men's ice hockey tournament of the Nagano Olympic Winter Games.
Joe Nieuwendyk of the Dallas Stars had a goal and two assists to pace the Canadians who improved to a perfect 2-0 in the round robin while Sweden fell to 1-1 and is now tied with the United States for second place in group B.
''We saw that Sweden's goaltender was coming out of his net quite a bit so we tried to take advantage of that and I think we did both on my goal and on our second goal by Al MacInnis,'' said Nieuwendyk following the game.
Nieuwendyk pulled Canada even 1-1 at 11:56 of the second period when the Dallas forward, standing behind Swedish goalie Tommy Salo at the side of the net, deflected in a hard shot from Rob Blake at the point.
With Mats Lindgren off for a crosscheck on Theoren Fleury, Al MacInnis of the St. Louis Blues faked a shot from the point pulling the Swedish goaltender out of the net and then fired a shot over the outstretched Salo as the Canadians took the lead.
Canada went up 3-1 when Los Angeles Kings defenseman Blake took a pass from Nieuwendyk at the blue line and fired a shot between the legs of Salo from the right face off circle.
Sweden opened the scoring in the first period on the power-play when defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings fired a slap shot from the high slot beating Canadian goaltender Patrick Roy cleanly through the legs.
In a closely contested battle, Sweden closed the gap to 3-2 at 9:31 of the third period when Mats Sundin of the Toronto Maple Leafs took a forward pass from Lidstrom and tipped it past Roy, who took the Colorado Avalanche to the Stanley Cup in 1996.
While the games in the round robin portion of the final round are only to determine the ranking for the quarter-finals, Canadian coach Marc Crawford stressed the importance of the victory.
''We'll savor this victory tonight. Sweden has a very good team and every game is important. Our goal is to improve in every game and I think we've done that so far,'' said Crawford.
Canada's next game will be against the United States. Canada lost to the U.S. in the inaugural World Cup of Hockey in 1996 and will be looking to gain a measure of revenge against a U.S. team that has struggled since arriving in Nagano. (Kyodo News)
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Copyright 1998 The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun