2010 - PARALYMPIC OLYMPICS - CANADA MEN'S SLEDGE HOCKEY TEAM DEFEATS NORWAY 5-0

From: CTVOlympics.ca



(Photo: Martin Rose/Bongarts/Getty Images)

By Rachel Brady, CTVOlympics.ca

Posted Wednesday, March 17, 2010 1:35 AM ET

Paralympics: Day 5

It's on to the semifinal round for the Canadian sledge hockey team after it sewed up first place in Group B at the Vancouver Paralympics, handing rival Norway its first loss, 5-0 on Tuesday.
That means Canada will play Japan in the tournament semifinal - (Thursday at 3 p.m. ET/noon PT – Semifinal (live) (English: Rogers Sportsnet; French: RIS) and, should Canada advance, won't have to face the high-powered Americans until the gold medal game.

"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 head coach Jeff Snyder."So I think we've really got to make sure that we're just concentrating on Japan."

Billy Bridges of Summerside, PEI opened the scoring for undefeated Canada just 31 seconds into the first period at UBC Thunderbird Arena, netting his first goal of the tournament.

Greg Westlake of Oakville, Ont. continued on his scoring tear, adding two goals for a total of seven in the tournament so far. He buried a pass from Brad Bowden (Orton, Ont.) just 31 seconds into the game, and then re-directed a Bowden shot early in the second period.

"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," said Westlake.

"We have a good enough staff and a mature enough team that (focus won't be an issue)."
Bowden also scored one himself, just 11 seconds into the second period. Adam Dixon , from Midland, Ont., added Canada's fifth goal.

Paul Rosen faced eight shots in the effort, while his Canadian teammates took 12 shots on the Norwegian net. It's Rosen's second shutout of the Paralympics.

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."

Canada (3-0) and Japan (2-1) will meet Thursday at 12 p.m. PT, 3 p.m. ET. Japan finished second in Group A after losing to the United States, 6-0 earlier on Tuesday. First-place USA will face Norway in the other semi.

Six different players scored for unbeaten Team USA in its third victory. Adam Page, Greg Shaw, Taylor Lipsett, Joe Howard and Nikko Landeros all scored even-handed goals while Alexi Salamone struck on the power play.

Steve Cash made five saves in the U.S net, while the Americans fired 19 shots at the Japanese. Mitsuru Nagase made 10 saves before being replaced in the third period by Shinobu Fukushima, who made three saves.

"We're continuing to improve with each passing game," said U.S. head coach Ray Maluta. "We connected on more of our prime chances tonight, and only committed a handful of mistakes."
The Americans and the Japanese (2-1) both advance to Thursday's semifinal round. In seven meetings against Japan during the 2009-10 season, the United States is a perfect 7-0 outscoring Japan 29-2.

The Czech Republic (1-2) clinched third place in Group A with a 4-2 win over Korea (0-3) on Tuesday.

The Czechs took an early lead with a goal from Zdenek Krupicka just 2 minutes, 29 seconds into the opening frame. Tomas Kvoch made it 2-0 near the end of the first.

Captain Pavel Kubes and Erik Kojtik added goals in the second.

Korea's Dong-Shin Jang was taken off the ice on a stretcher after he was injured during the second period. He was favouring his left arm, but waved to the crowd as he was being taken off the ice.

Down 4-0 heading into the third, Korea made a game of it, starting with Byeong-Seok Cho's powerplay goal 1 minute, 46 seconds into the third. Jong-Kyung Lee scored Korea's other goal three minutes later.

In the B pool, Sweden (1-2) edged winless Italy 1-0 to finish third in the pool. Teams seeded fifth through eighth will play in the playoffs on Wednesday.