Canada Finally Back Into Swing of Things

The goals came, as Wayne Gretzky predicted they would. Martin Brodeur played like a gold-medal winning goalie too.

That doesn’t mean Canada solved all its problems during an encouraging but far-from-perfect performance one day before the Olympic men’s hockey games start to really count.

Chris Pronger scored a goal and set up another in a three-goal first period and Canada ended its long scoring slump, then held off the Czech Republic, 3-2, Tuesday for its first victory in three games.

“A couple of goals helps the confidence,” Pronger said. “Finally getting a win after a couple of games gives everyone a lift.”

By winning, Canada (3-2) finished third among the four qualifiers in six-team Group A and will meet Russia (4-1) in the quarterfinals today.

The Czechs (2-3), last year’s world champions, finished a disappointing last among the four Group A qualifiers and meet rival Slovakia (5-0), the top team in Group B, today.

“We didn’t win a lot of games, but the tournament really starts with the quarterfinals,” Czech forward Milan Hejduk said. “Today we showed some signs of life and, if we play well in the next few games, we’ll be fine.”

The day after executive director Gretzky promised one goal would lead to another, he was right. Brad Richards, Martin St. Louis and Pronger scored in a 12-minute span of the first to put Canada up 3-0.

Canada had been shut out for 129 minutes 11 seconds, a span that included losses to Switzerland and Finland, before Richards scored on what looked to be a harmless wrist shot about 7 1/2 minutes into the first.

“The big thing was we came back from a bad spell,” Ryan Smyth said. “We played more like a team and regained that focus.”