It was agreed by all before this Olympic hockey tournament that this was a better Canadian team, more cleverly constructed, a superior puzzle. As the Games approached, the fact that Canada's goaltenders were faltering to various degrees was attributed to their heads already being in Vancouver. And after an opening 8-0 win over Norway, nobody seemed overly worried. But it was still a puzzle that was not fully assembled. And then Thursday night, just like that, jeopardy.
VANCOUVER -- It was agreed by all before this Olympic hockey tournament that this was a better Canadian team, more cleverly constructed, a superior puzzle. And after an opening 8-0 win over Norway, nobody seemed overly worried.
But it was still a puzzle that was not fully assembled. And Thursday night, against Switzerland, it nearly came apart. Canada and the Swiss were tied 2-2 after two periods, after regulation, and after the five-minute, 4-on-4 overtime. And in the fourth round of the shootout, Canada barely managed a 3-2 victory at Canada Hockey Place.
"That's a hot goalie you're facing, and it's one game, and so many things can happen," said Crosby, who scored the winning goal on his second shootout attempt. "We're going to have to get better ... but the gold medal game's not tomorrow, either. That's the good news."
The hot goalie was Anaheim's Jonas Hiller, and this one game was a marvel. Canada pushed its way to a 2-0 lead on goals by Dany Heatley and a power-play marker from Patrick Marleau, and as goaltender Martin Brodeur put it, "I thought, this is going to be good."
But the Swiss have spent much more time together than this hastily assembled Canadian squad, and it showed. After Canada whiffed on a series of power plays -- "static," was coach Mike Babcock's one-word description -- Switzerland scored on a beautiful rush that began with an overplay by 20-year-old defenceman Drew Doughty at the Swiss blue line, and ended when Ivo Ruthemann beat Brodeur cleanly with a slap shot that may have dented the post before it found the back of the net.
The Swiss began to believe. Canada did not.
"We tightened up," said Babcock. "They got faster."
And just like that, jeopardy. Switzerland tied it on a shot that deflected in off Marleau's skate with 10 seconds left in the second period, and a frenzied third changed nothing. Canada got the bulk of the chances, yes, but the Swiss played without fear and with cohesion. And Hiller was magnificent.
"Wow, the guy was amazing," said Brodeur.
In the shootout Hiller stopped Sidney Crosby, then Jonathan Toews, then Ryan Getzlaf, all of whom Babcock sent out based on their shootout success ratings so far this season in the National Hockey League. But Brodeur replied each time -- "usually you have a book on shooters, but I had no clue. One guy, I was barely able to pronounce his name" -- and Crosby, instead of Rick Nash, was given another chance.
He made no mistake, firing a wrist shot that eluded Hiller, and Brodeur stopped a gentleman named Martin Pluss to ensure a Canadian escape.
Should the whole thing have been a shock? Maybe. But maybe not. Nothing will be given to this team here, or anywhere. This wasn't a near-upset borne in part out of the unfamiliar international ice surface, either. Just of hard work, bounces, and will. And it could have gone either way.
"I think this is a huge step for our team to understand how hard it's going to be, and how well we have to play," said Babcock, who said Brodeur would start against the United States on Sunday. "We stopped shooting the puck, we stopped being physical, we started over-passing the puck, and it caught up with us."
"I don't think that was a stolen point," said Hiller simply, and he was right.
After Canada's tournament-opening 8-0 win over Norway, Babcock talked about how Canada escaped with a 2-1 victory over Norway at the 2008 world championship, and said, "That's reality. These teams came and it's their opportunity at the Olympics just like every other athlete and they think it's their day. If their goaltending gets hot enough and the special teams are good enough, and if they bend you early and score on the power play, you get pressured up, you pucker up and they can beat you."
Write it in stone. This is what this tournament is, or at least can be. This was not a crew of Norwegians fronting a carpenter in goal; this was a team that not only defeated Canada 2-0 during the debacle in Turin, but actually finished one spot ahead of the seventh-place Canadians in that Olympics. And unlike Norway, they knew that beating Canada, no matter how imposing the edifice, was not impossible.
Now everyone else does, too, if they didn't already. On Tuesday night the Russians lost the plot in the second period too, against Latvia, before remembering they were lethal and running away. That was Russia's first test, and their red armies passed.
Well, this was Canada's first real test. They passed, in the end. Make of it what you will.
Photo: Sidney Crosby of Canada celebrates scoring the game-winning goal in a shootout during the ice hockey men's preliminary game between Switzerland and Canada on day 7 of the 2010 Winter Olympics at Canada Hockey Place on February 18, 2010 in Vancouver. Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
