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CANADIAN SLEDGE HOCKEY TEAM BEATS NORWAY, AVOIDS U.S. IN PARALYMPIC SEMIFINAL
VANCOUVER – Canada's road to the gold medal game in Paralympic sledge hockey should be a little easier
after Tuesday night, but head coach Jeff Snyder isn't taking anything for granted.
The hosts beat Norway 5-0 in their final round-robin game, clinching top spot in Group B and avoiding the
high-power Americans in the semifinals.
Canada will now face Japan on Thursday, with a possible showdown for gold with the U.S. looming.
“You come here and your goal is to win a gold medal and you can't get to the gold medal obviously until
you win that semifinal,” said Snyder.
“So I think we've really got to make sure that we're just concentrating on Japan.”
Canada jumped on Norway early, with Billy Bridges scoring on the power play just 31 seconds in off a feed
from Adam Dixon.
Greg Westlake, the tournament's leading goal-scorer, made it 2-0 when he drove to the net, took a pass
from Brad Bowden, and rifled a shot home.
Bowden snapped a wrist shot just inside the far post 11 seconds into the middle period to give Canada a
commanding 3-0 lead.
Westlake, who added another goal in the second period and now has seven in three games, said he's not
going to let anything keep him away from gold in Vancouver, never mind a lapse in focus.
“I'm having the time of my life here. This is what we've wanted for so long and I'm not going to cower
away from it now,” he said.
“We have a good enough staff and a mature enough team that (focus won't be an issue).”
Japan finished second in Group A, but its wins came against the Czech Republic and Korea, two teams hardly
regarded as sledge hockey powerhouses.
Fuelled by a boisterous flag-waving capacity crowd, Canada was relentless on the forecheck and physically
dominated the Norwegians.
“That was our gameplan right from the start, get on top of them,” said Canada's Raymond Grassi.
“They've got a lot of guys who play quite a few minutes so for us to be really physical against them, the
same way we were against Sweden in the last game really makes a difference, it really tires them out.”
Grassi said he doesn't believe his teammates will look beyond the Japanese and suffer a semifinal
letdown.
“We came here with five games to play, the opponent didn't matter.”
Norway, which Canada beat in the gold medal game in Turin and again at the world championships in 2008,
came into the Paralympics expected to challenge for gold.
However, the Norwegians – who will face the U.S. in the other semifinal – squeaked out a 2-1 shootout win
over Sweden in their first round-robin game, and beat Italy 2-1 in their second.
Canada, on the other hand, beat Sweden 10-1 and Italy 4-0 and Snyder said his team is getting stronger
with each game.
“We had some jitters that first game against Italy and kind of struggled a little for the first two
periods. And then we had a good third period and really opened it up and I think that's really carried over
in the last two games,” he said.
“I thought we played one of the most dominant games in a long time. We were so good on both ends of the
ice (against Norway).”
Canadian captain Jean Labonte said the fan response might well have had something to do with his team's
dominating performance.
“To play in front of such great crowds ... that's really motivating,” he said.
“We're not used to playing in such large crowds.”
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