Team Canada routs Norway in Olympic opener
Written by on February 16th, 2010 in Latest News.
Team Canada defence Dan Boyle (22) fends off Norwegian forward Per-Age Skroder in their Olympic opener on Tuesday. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
Team Canada looked powerful in its Olympic opener, an 8-0 rout of Norway on Tuesday night.
Jarome Iginla led the offensive onslaught with a hat trick and Dany Heatley scored twice, while Mike Richards, Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry had the other goals.
Roberto Luongo recorded the shutout, stopping 15 shots.
The near-capacity crowd at Canada Hockey Place was nervous to see Team Canada start the Olympic tournament. But just before Luongo led the Canadians onto the ice Tuesday, the fans were whipped into a frenzy when the scoreboard broadcast the gold-medal snowboard run of North Vancouver’s Maelle Ricker.
The crowd cheered wildly for Canada’s second gold medal at the Winter Games, but the men’s hockey team did not give the crowd much to hoot and holler about in the opening 20 minutes.
Canada outshot Norway 14-4 and was awarded two power-play opportunities in the first period, but both teams left for the dressing rooms scoreless. Canada lacked sharpness around the Norway goal and 32-year-ancient netminder Pal Grotnes made a couple of dandy glove saves.
One of those impressive stops was on Canada’s Sidney Crosby, who also had the Norway goalie beaten earlier in the period but had the puck roll off his stick before he could sweep it behind Grotnes.
Grotnes, who plays in the Norwegian league, is the same goalie who made 50 saves against Canada at the 2008 world championship, when Canada narrowly escaped with a 2-1 victory.
Another roar from the crowd during the first period was when Wayne Gretzky was shown on the scoreboard standing with friends and officials in a luxury box. Gretzky, of course, was involved in the opening ceremony last Friday, lighting the Olympic cauldron along with Catriona Le May Doan, Steve Nash, Rick Hansen and Nancy Greene-Raine.
Iginla gets offence going
The Canadians were much better in the second period because they place more traffic in front of Grotnes. This resulted in an early power-play goal from Iginla in the high slot and Heatley redirected a Chris Pronger point drive less than two minutes later.
Norway had an opportunity to get back in the game with a 48-second, two-man advantage. But instead of closing the gap, Canada’s Mike Richards place Canada ahead by three because of his hustle, moments after teammate Eric Staal’s tripping penalty had expired.
Canadian head coach Mike Babcock experimented with different forward and defence combinations after the disappointing first period. Iginla was went up to replace Patrice Bergeron on the Crosby line with right-winger Rick Nash. Richards, Bergeron and Jonathan Toews became the fourth line.
In international hockey, teams dress a seventh defenceman and a 13th forward. The Canadian coaching staff gave most of the seven defencemen equal ice time. Dan Boyle and Shea Weber were usually the pair to start power plays for Canada and the second twosome was Pronger and Drew Doughty.
