Dramatic draw

Czechs clinch second in Group C with 3-3 tie

Brendan Shanahan raises his arms after Joe Nieuwendyk's game-tying goal gets by Dominik Hasek. AP

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (AP) - Canada played its way back into the Olympic hockey tournament after three days of criticism and second-guessing -- and it didn't even have to win a game.

Joe Nieuwendyk got the tying goal with 31/2 minutes left after Mario Lemieux scored twice and Canada rallied for a much-needed 3-3 tie Monday with the Czech Republic.

Not only did the much-hyped but previously disappointing Canadians gain some momentum by tying the defending gold medalists, they also got what seems a much more favorable quarterfinal matchup on Wednesday.

Rather than playing Russia, a 3-1 upset loser to Finland, Canada now plays Finland. The Czechs, only 1-1-1 so far, must play the Russians, while the unbeaten United States meets Germany and Sweden plays Belarus.

There was nothing passive about this tilt, a game in which Team Canada finally played an entire 60 minutes of hockey. They didn’t win, but they didn’t beat themselves, either. And that is all the Canadians were seeking to accomplish heading into Wednesday’s elimination game against Finland. Click here for more from Eliot.

"We kind of control our destiny now," Team Canada executive director Wayne Gretzky said. "We played much better, with much more emotion and much more desperation. We deserved a tie, at the least ... and it set us up in a much better situation."

Czech coach Josef Augusta was aware a loss might have benefitted his team by avoiding an elimination game with Russia, but said, "We were still planning to win."

The tie was a visible relief to Gretzky, whose face has clearly shown the strain of the team's struggles so far. Gretzky spent the game leaning over the railing of an upper deck box, his face grimacing with every twist and turn.

Afterward, Gretzky, who was highly critical of his own team only two days before, lashed out at Canada's doubters -- a group he labeled as everyone outside the team and its fans. He said other countries "hate us. ... The Americans love our poor start. They love it when we're not doing well."

Canada certainly didn't impress Czech forward Martin Rucinsky, who said, "We don't care about Canada at all. We don't take them as the team to beat, I don't think Canada is even close to being the best team. You've seen that by the scores."

There are inherent dangers in doing an autopsy when the patient is still breathing, a simple scientific fact that all interns and Canadians should grasp. The nation of some 30 million needed an oversized valium after watching some Olympic hockey that ranged from poor to indifferent, getting it finally in a 3-3 tie with the Czech Republic. Click here for more from Farber.

Gretzky also said the Czechs' Roman Hamrlik of the New York Islanders should be suspended for spearing Canada forward Theo Fleury late in the game, saying, "I wouldn't want to be in that Islanders-Rangers game next week."

Canada seemed headed for a loss when Jiri Dopita scored with 6:43 remaining to give the Czechs, playing their second tough game in less than 24 hours, a 3-2 lead. The Czechs lost 2-1 Sunday to unbeaten Sweden.

But the Canadians, displaying an intensity missing in their 5-2 loss to Sweden and 3-2 victory over relatively weak Germany, rallied for the tying goal. Fleury and Ed Jovanovski cycled the puck in the Czechs' end until Nieuwendyk got free for a wrister near the edge of the left circle that goalie Dominik Hasek couldn't stop.

"We've been getting better and better as the days go on," Nieuwendyk said. "We're building toward the elimination round."

Canada got a huge lift from the productive return of Lemieux, its captain and Hall of Famer who was scratched from a 3-2 victory Sunday over Germany, apparently because of a sore back and hip. Two days before, Lemieux seemed in so much pain he couldn't even skate upright during the loss to Sweden, a game Gretzky called "a disaster."

On Monday, Lemieux was skating with his usual speed and power and the results quickly showed. He scored the first goal at 9:11 of the first period, skating in from the blue line before squeezing a wrist shot past Hasek.

Wayne Gretzky came to the front of the press interview room shortly after Canada and Czech Republic tied 3-3 Monday night and made the biggest play anyone has made for Team Canada in these Olympics. Click here for more.

"I think the key for us was to come out and play with intensity," Lemieux said. "Our game is skating and forechecking and taking the body and I thought we did that well."

Martin Havlat, moved up to Jaromir Jagr's No. 1 line, responded by giving the Czechs a 2-1 lead by scoring late in the first period and early in the second, both on wrist shots from the slot that eluded Martin Brodeur.

But Lemieux tied it -- with the aid of instant replay -- at 18:49 of the second.

Lemieux, working a 2-on-1 break with Steve Yzerman, shot a hard wrister that Hasek gloved. But the momentum of the shot carried Hasek across the goal line, and Lemieux immediately threw his arms up in celebration.

However, referee Bill McCreary did not immediately make a signal, and it took several minutes of review before the goal counted.

"It was clearly a goal. There was nothing to review," Gretzky said.

Then, quickly changing the subject back to his theme of Canada vs. the world, Gretzky said the tie was justified because, "They couldn't skate with us in the third period ... they talk we're not a skating team, that we have no finesse and that's crazy. We skated them into the ground."

 

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