Turin – Score one for the Canadian travel agents.
While the American men’s team descended upon Italy in a swarm of commercial jets that delivered the players through a variety of global routes, Team Canada flew in together Tuesday on a chartered plane.
Fresh and eager, the Canadians pounced on Italy 7-2 Wednesday against an eager squad that treated the opener as its gold-medal game. Joe Sakic had two assists. His Avalanche teammate, Rob Blake, fired one shot on goal.
But Canada’s head coach, Pat Quinn, wasn’t thrilled with his team.
“We’ve got to become a hockey team. We’re not yet,” Quinn said. “We’re a bunch of talented individuals.”
On the first day of the men’s hockey competition, no Avalanche players scored for their national team.
Together, though, they notched three assists and put 15 shots on goal.
John-Michael Liles had one assist for the United States in a 3-3 tie with Latvia. His Colorado blueline partner, Karlis Skrastins, had one shot.
Marek Svatos had three shots on goal in Slovakia’s 5-3 win over Russia. Avs goalie Peter Budaj stopped 20-of-23 Russian shots.
In Finland’s 5-0 win over the Swiss team, Colorado’s Antti Laaksonen posted one shot. Colorado’s starting goalie, David Aebischer, did not get that honor for the Swiss. He entered the game after Finland notched all the points, then stopped all 12 shots he faced.
Vitaly Kolesnik didn’t play in Kazakhstan’s 7-2 loss to Sweden.
Former Avalanche forward Peter Forsberg came to Turin but didn’t play in that game. The Swedish star is hobbled by a sore groin muscle. He said he planned to test it in a practice skate Friday.
Avs sniper Milan Hejduk had three shots in the Czech Republic’s 4-1 win over Germany.
Less than 10 minutes into that game, Czech goalie Dominik Hasek made a flurry of pad saves and felt a sharp pain between his legs. He said it wasn’t a groin injury. But he left the net and his availability in Turin remains in doubt.
