Canada Reaches Gold-Medal Game, 4-2

The country that claims it invented hockey is assured of winning its first Olympic hockey medal since 1968.

“This is something I’ll remember forever,” goaltender Sean Burke said Friday, after Canada advanced to the championship game with a 4-2 semifinal victory over Czechoslovakia. “I was with this team in 1988 and I went away without winning anything. To have a chance to win the gold medal is just wonderful.”

Curt Giles’ slap shot from the left point 3:59 into the third period lifted the second-seeded Canadians past a game but battered Czech squad, and Fabian Joseph rebounded a shot by Todd Brost with 2:12 left to clinch the victory. Canada has not won a gold medal since 1952 at Oslo, and its last silver medal was won in 1960 at Squaw Valley, Calif.

“To get into the gold-medal game is a dream come true,” said Coach Dave King, who led Canada to successive fourth-place finishes in 1984 at Sarajevo and 1988 at Calgary. “I hope, for the future of Canadian hockey, getting a medal here will make kids consider the Olympic program as a steppingstone before playing in the NHL.”

Canada will face the Unified Team Sunday for the gold medal, a week after they met in a preliminary-round game won by the Unified Team, 5-4. That defeat is Canada’s only loss in the tournament.

“They’re a very good team. They’re a young and very enthusiastic group,” King said. “The thing that interested us (in the Unified Team’s 5-2 semifinal victory over the United States) is when the game was close, would they get some leadership? They got it from Viacheslav Bykov and Andrei Khomutov and Igor Kravchuk.”

Czech Coach Ivan Hlinka, who spent two seasons in the NHL with the Vancouver Canucks, congratulated King and the Canadian players.

“I said before the tournament, Canada is for me one of the biggest favorites,” said Hlinka, whose team was responsible for the Unified Team’s only loss, a 4-3 defeat Feb. 12. “They have a good team and they know how to play hockey in Europe and that is very important. They play with good tactics on the big-size rinks.”