Two of the three medallists from the Salt Lake City Games struggled on the opening day of the Olympic ice-hockey tournament, while Canada shrugged off the Wayne Gretzky storm to cruise past hosts Italy.
Latvia produced the big shock of the night by drawing with 2002 silver medallists United States 3-3, while Slovakia stunned 2002 bronze-medal winners Russia 5-3.
Arturs Irbe stopped 39 shots and Atvars Tribuncovs and Herberts Vasiljevs scored two quick goals in the second period for Latvia. Irbe made 18 saves in the final period as his team were outshot 42-25, but still managed to scare the mighty US by putting on one of their best Olympic performances in their history.
Canada, Finland and the Czech Republic were all winners in group A on Wednesday, while Sweden and Slovakia won their opening group-B games.
The 39-year-old Irbe is the most prominent player on the Latvian team, who almost scored the first big upset of the tournament despite having very few National Hockey League players in their line-up.
Tribuncovs and Vasiljevs scored 40 seconds apart in the middle frame to give Latvia a 3-2 lead which they took into the third.
”They played well,” American forward Doug Weight said. ”We had an eight-minute span where we turned the puck over a lot. Any team is capable in this tournament. They showed they are a good team.”
Weight’s teammate Jordan Leopold tied it with just more than two minutes gone in the final period and it stayed that way.
Canada recovered from a sluggish start to score five second-period goals in a 7-2 rout over Italy. ”I think we were a little tired but we got our wind and we were more aggressive in the second period,” Canadian forward Vincent Lecavalier said.
Jarome Iginla scored two goals for Canada, who arrived in Turin just 24 hours earlier because the players had to honour commitments to their National Hockey League clubs.
The squad also arrived in Turin with legendary player and executive director Wayne Gretzky still fighting off claims of links to an illegal betting ring. Gretzky has denied all allegations of wrong-doing.
”We were all pretty tired, but today being the first game of the Olympic tournament we didn’t have to even think about getting pumped,” 28-year-old Calgary Flame forward Iginla added.
Marian Gaborik scored two goals with less than four minutes left in the third to lift Slovakia to a 5-3 win over Russia. Gaborik scored the winner with just 3,28 left and then iced the victory for the underdog Slovaks with another tally at 19,31.
The goals were scored from opposite wings, but were almost carbon copies of each other because Gaborik fired both shots over the shoulder of Russian goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov.
Lubomir Visnovsky, Pavol Demitra and Peter Bondra also scored for Slovakia, who had to rally from a 2-1 first period deficit at the end of the first.
Pavel Datsyuk, Alexei Kovalev and Alexander Ovechkin scored for Russia.
Russia won the bronze in 2002 and silver at the 1998 Nagano Olympics and are considered one of four pre-tournament favourites in Turin, along with Canada, Sweden and the Czechs.
Czech’s star forward Jaromir Jagr had a goal and an assist as they opened with a 4-1 come-from-behind victory over Germany on Wednesday.
Defenceman Tomas Kaberle scored two goals and David Vyborny scored once for the Czechs in front of 6 463 at the Palasport Olimpico arena. Both Kaberle’s goals came in the second period.
Dominik Hasek started in net for the Czechs but had to leave the game halfway through the first with an injury and was replaced by Tomas Vokoun, who made 20 of 21 saves. Hasek is arguably the best goaltender in the world but Vokoun, who plays for the National Hockey League’s Nashville Predators, is an all-star in his own right.
Vokoun also registered an assist on one of Kaberle’s goals.
It is uncertain how serious Hasek’s injury is. The team would only say it is in the upper leg area, ”but not his groin”. Hasek would see a team doctor on Thursday.
Sweden, who hammered Kazakhstan 7-2 in a group-A match-up, have injury concerns of their own. Three Swedish players and some of the team’s equipment arrived from Milan just one hour before the opening face-off.
”It was quite a ride from Milan,” said Henrik Zetterberg, who travelled from Detroit where he plays for the Red Wings of the National Hockey League.
Sweden have also had to play without injured superstar Peter Forsberg, who plans to skate with the team on Friday to see how he is progressing. — Sapa-AFP