Canada takes its anger out on Russia

Pushed to the brink of Olympic elimination Wednesday for the second day in a row, Team Canada pushed back.

Literally.

Playing a relentlessly physical game that shredded Russia’s defense and eliminated Alexander Ovechkin from what rapidly became a wildly unbalanced equation, Canada pounded Russia, 7-3, before a roaring crowd at Canada Hockey Place and advanced to the tournament semifinals on Friday.

Canada will face Slovakia, a 4-3 winner over No. 2 Sweden in the late game Wednesday.

Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf and San Jose defenseman Dan Boyle each contributed a goal and two assists and Ducks winger Corey Perry scored twice as Canada earned its first victory in nine Olympic matches since 1960 against the Russians or their Unified Team and Soviet predecessors.

Suddenly, Canada -- which had to beat Germany in a qualifying game Tuesday just to get this far -- looks like the gold-medal contender it was supposed to be.

“I think we were slowly boiling,” Canada winger Eric Staal said, “and once the puck dropped to start the game we were ready and we were firing.”

The Russians were far better at analyzing the game than they were at playing it. Ovechkin, held to three shots, was a minus-two defensively and got his name on the score sheet only for serving a penalty called against Russia for having too many men on the ice.

“They were much faster than us. They came out like gorillas out of a cage,” said goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, summoned in relief after Evgeni Nabokov gave up six goals on 23 shots over 24 minutes and seven seconds.

Being eliminated so soon, Bryzgalov said, “is same thing like if it was the Canadians. It’s a disaster. End of the world.”

Nabokov, torched early and often and rendered helpless by his teammates’ matador defense, said Getzlaf’s goal 2:21 into the game off a superb pass from Boyle set the ominous tone for Russia.

“After that they kept coming and we weren’t able to stop the bleeding,” said Nabokov, who rarely faces such indignities in San Jose while Boyle is on his side.

Boyle gave Canada a 2-0 lead at 12:09 on a long power-play blast through a screen provided by yet another Shark, forward Patrick Marleau. Merely 46 seconds later Chicago’s Jonathan Toews hounded Evgeni Malkin into turning the puck over and set up Rick Nash for Canada’s third goal.

“We played without passion. It was obvious,” Bryzgalov said. “I don’t know why, but when it’s over everyone has to ask that question of himself.”

Dmitri Kalinin cut Canada’s lead to 3-1 at 14:39, but Canada scored the next three goals as Brenden Morrow, Perry and the impressive Shea Weber strafed Nabokov from every angle.

“You never think you’re going to get that many on them. We got some big goals at different times,” said Perry, who capped Canada’s scoring by redirecting a Getzlaf pass beyond Bryzgalov at 9:51 of the second period.

“We hadn’t really played that physical 60-minute game, and we did that tonight.”

None of the Canadian players wanted to look beyond the immediate, but the possibility of a U.S.-Canada gold-medal game intrigues them.

“We want to win gold,” Boyle said. “Obviously redemption would be nice against those guys, but it doesn’t matter.”

What matters is that Team Canada is proving tougher than the road it has had to follow after its early stumbles.

helene.elliott@latimes.com