Canada brushed aside Germany to keep their men's ice hockey gold-medal bid on track and set up a keenly-awaited Olympic quarter-final with Russia.The host nation, whose fans are desperate for a men's ice hockey gold in Vancouver above all others, crushed the Germans 8-2 at Canada Hockey Place to atone for their preliminary round defeat to the United States last Sunday.
The shock 5-3 loss to the Americans left Canada in a play-off round rather than with a bye to the last eight and also meant the Canadians would have to face their biggest Winter Olympics rivals Russia at the quarter-final stage.
when most fans had expected that match-up to happen in this Sunday's final.Instead, ice hockey's biggest rivalry will be played out on Wednesday with a semi-final berth at stake rather than medals.
Vancouver Canucks goalkeeper Roberto Luongo had been called into the starting line-up on his home ice in place of veteran Martin Brodeur following the reversal to the USA but it was his opposite number Thomas Greiss of the San Jose Sharks who was the busier man in the nets as Canada dominated the Germans, outshooting the Europeans by 39 shots to 23.
Germany had never beaten Canada in 11 meetings while both East and West Germany had lost a further three times out of three combined and there was little chance of altering the statistic once Joe Thornton opened the scoring for Canada in the first period.The hosts stepped up a gear in the second, goals coming from defenceman Shea Weber and Jarome Iginla twice, his first on a power play.
The Germans got on the board for only the fourth time at these Olympics when Marcel Goc beat a prone Luongo with a wrap-around shot from behind the goal line with less than four minutes of the second period to go.Sidney Crosby, one of ice hockey's most exciting players, added his name to the Canada scoresheet just 70 seconds into the final period as the Canadians took a 5-1 lead.
It was 6-1, five and a half minutes later as Mike Richards blasted past Greiss and with defenceman Brenden Morrow claiming the assist, every one of the 20 Canadian outfield players in the squad had either scored and assisted at the Vancouver Games.
The Canadians were rampant and having dealt with a German power play following captain Scott Niedermayer's two-minute spell in the penalty box for hooking, the same player returned and within 19 seconds of returning to the game had scored his team's seventh goal, shooting between the legs of Greiss.
With 3:32 remaining, Rick Nash swept in from the right after a long pass out of defence from Chris Pronger and slashed the puck past Greiss for goal number eight.Manuel Klinge gave the Germans fans something to cheer with just 62 seconds remaining when he beat Luongo but there was no disputing it was Canada's night, and a date with the Russians awaits.