VANCOUVER - In the end, the game plan was really quite simple.

"We just wanted to play Canadian style hockey," said winger Rick Nash, "We wanted to forecheck hard, finish all of our checks."

 

What a clever move, indeed, dust off the time-proven Canadian game plan for taming the Russian bear. It has worked time and again in international play, if not very often in the Olympics.

Fifty years after their only win over the Russians in the Olympic hockey tournament, Team Canada arranged another on Wednesday, but not one many would have predicted.

Playing with great emotion and aggression, speed and skill, Team Canada steamrolled over the Russians, 7-3, in their quarter-final matchup, after which the losing coach apologized for his team's play.

But it might have had more to do with what Canada was doing than what the Russians weren't.
 
Indeed, seldom has Canada ever beaten the Russians quite as decisively as they did Wednesday night in any competition, prompting one observer to wonder aloud if Canada had just played the Russians...or the Belarussians?

Canada never lost confidence
 
Of course, Team Canada had insisted all along they believed, that their game was getting better and whatever worries that were being held across the land were perhaps understandable from afar, but in their minds they were unfounded.
 
"I thought we were getting better," said coach Mike Babcock. "I know a couple of games ago when I came in here after the U.S. game, not many people believed that."
 
Perhaps they were getting better, but they were nowhere close to playing like they did Wednesday, earning what Babcock called an invitation back into the tournament. One more win for a guaranteed medal, two more wins for gold. Next up the semifinals against upstart Slovakia on Friday night.
   
The first period Wednesday was an absolute gem for Canada, the second wasn't bad, either. They were as close to perfect as you could get.
 
From the opening faceoff the Canadians were relentless, intense and physical, moving the puck smartly and avoiding any dangerous plays. They did a brilliant job of working the puck down low, had several highlight reel passing plays and they led 4-1 after one period, 7-3 after two.

"We were slowly boiling before the game," said winger Eric Staal. "Once the puck dropped we were ready, we were firing."
 
Keys to victory

There were a couple of key factors in this win. The forecheck and hitting were both so powerful they kept the vaunted Russian forwards on the defensive, their guns in their holsters. It's tough to score from your own end of the rink after all.
 
"We wanted to forecheck hard, to grind the pucks in the corners and grind their defence down," said winger Corey Perry. "It was quiet in the dressing room before the game. Everyone knew what was at stake and what we wanted to do."
 
It was a handful of players who coach Mike Babcock had suggested earlier were underperforming that accounted for much of the offensive damage early. Canada had tweaked its lines previously to get more out of Perry and Ryan Getzlaf, well, the latter opened the scoring in first period and Perry ended up with a couple of goals himself, while left winger Brenden Morrow also had one and was impressive working the corners.
 
Another player who hadn't quite found his game, defenceman Dan Boyle, made a nice rush to set up the Getzlaf goal. Boyle then made it 2-0 with a rare power-play goal midway through the first period with Patrick Marleau providing a nice screen.
 
That was another improvement by the Canadians. They got lots of traffic in front of the Russian goal and avoided misplays in the middle of the offensive zone.
 
Boyle and defence partner Chris Pronger had both admitted to struggling in the tournament, but both played well against the Russians. As Babcock put it the other day leaders can't really lead until they get their own game in order.
 
"I welcomed [Boyle] back after the game," said Babcock.
 
Anyway, just 46 seconds after the Boyle goal, a newly formed line of Jonathan Toews, Mike Richards and Nash passed the puck around like it was on a string, with Nash making it 3-0.
 
That line, with Scott Niedermayer and big Shea Weber on the back end, was put together to go up against the Russians big line of Alex Ovechkin, Evegni Malkin and Alexander Semin, a matchup Babcock constantly got despite not having last change.

And it worked.
 
Weber and Nash were on Ovechkin all night. When it was over, Ovechkin managed just three shots and was minus two with 21:15 of ice time, his line a collective minus six.
 
"We thought that matchup [Weber] was important because of his size," said Babcock. "We played Nash and Weber against him most of the night. They're big bodies and they played hard."
   
It was assistant coach Ken Hitchcock, who formerly coached Nash in Columbus, who thought of putting Nash on Ovechkin, knowing he could match the size, speed and power. Credit to Babcock and his staff overall because all of the line juggling paid off big time.
   
After taking a 4-1 lead into the first intermission, the Canadians were just as relentless in the second period with Perry and Weber both scoring early to really put it away before the Russians finally gave the hook to Evgeni Nabokov, who was playing like it was springtime in San Jose.
   
All the talk of a Sidney Crosby versus Ovechkin subplot, by the way, was just that - talk.

Crosby played a solid, physical game, while Ovechkin was kept in close check, constantly pounded. But this game was not about that head-to-head battle.
   
"I know the media think it's between Ovi and Sid, but that's not what the players think," said Babcock. "It's a team game."
   
Any way you score it, any way you break it down, on this night Team Canada was the best team by far - playing Canadian style hockey.

Photo: Ryan Getzlaf, right, is hugged by teammate Dan Boyle after scoring his first goal of the game against Russia. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)