This Victory Is a Finnish Product

For Teemu Selanne and his Finnish teammates, their 2-0 victory over defending Olympic champion Canada on Sunday was not an upset.

“I don’t see any reason why we can’t beat them,” said Selanne, who has scored a tournament-leading six goals.

“We compete against them on a daily basis. We eat the same food and drink the same beer.... The only thing that matters is, we believe, and we know how good we can be.”

The Finns were energetic, determined and smart in improving their record to 4-0 atop Group A and handing Canada (2-2) its second straight shutout loss.

Philadelphia Flyer goaltender Antero Niittymaki, a late replacement on Finland’s roster, stopped 24 shots and benefited from a gritty all-around effort by a team whose confidence is soaring.

“We believed. I don’t know if anybody else really did,” said Niittymaki, who heightened the Canadians’ frustration when he stopped Rick Nash on a breakaway late in the second period. “Probably on paper, Canada is better than us.”

But Canada wasn’t better on the ice at the Torino Esposizioni, site of Sweden’s victory over the U.S. a few hours earlier. If it seemed to be a rough day for North American hockey, Canadian forward Kris Draper thought not.

“The Finns played a pretty good North American-style hockey game against us,” Draper said. “We’ve got to get back to that. We’ve got to chip the puck in, chip the puck in deep. We’ve got big, strong forwards and we have to take advantage of that.

“We’re going to have to score an ugly goal to get this thing turned around.”

Canada had secured a berth in Wednesday’s playoff quarterfinals before it faced Finland, but, as Draper said, “I don’t think in a tournament like this, you can turn it on and off.”

At the moment, the spigot is off. “It doesn’t feel good at all,” forward Jarome Iginla said. “We know we have to get better.”

The Finns outshot Canada, 14-5, in a strong first period.

Selanne scored their first goal, after Saku Koivu won the puck from Chris Pronger behind Canada’s net and made a quick pass to Selanne. The Mighty Duck winger was unchecked in the slot and easily beat Roberto Luongo at 11:14.

Finland got a lucky bounce a few minutes later when defenseman Kimo Timonen’s shot from the point was deflected before it caromed off the glass, into the slot and onto the stick of Niko Kapanen, who poked it into the net at 15:02.

Niittymaki remained poised when Canada tried to respond, never blinking when Ryan Smyth and Joe Thornton tried to plant themselves in front of the net for rebounds or deflections.

“It’s a great feeling when you have a goalie who’s so calm, so confident,” Selanne said.

The Canadians’ confidence is at a low ebb. Their two victories were over non-contenders Germany and Italy, and they haven’t been able to compete with teams that are physical or fast. But Draper, a three-time Stanley Cup winner with the Detroit Red Wings, said Canada would find a way out of this slump.

“This team is not going to panic,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of character and leadership in our locker room. We’ve got to come out hard against the Czech Republic on Tuesday and find a way to score the first goal and get this thing turned around. We’re falling behind and then you run into goaltenders like [Switzerland’s Martin] Gerber, and Niittymaki.

“We get a goal, we get a win and we get this thing going in the right direction.”