Team approach lifts Canada past Finland into men’s hockey semifinals

This was clearly a bit of self-deprecating humour. Kelly, after all, played parts of six seasons in Boston until 2016, when the Bruins let him walk to Ottawa as a 35-year-old free agent. He was describing himself as one of those “bums.” He seemed happy for the Bruins. No hard feelings. On to the next one.

That’s no doubt part of the reason why Kelly is Canada’s captain here. He’s a veteran guy who’s gotten over himself. He’s more apt to sacrifice for the greater good. And self-sacrifice is a key ingredient to winning hockey.

It certainly was a big piece of Canada’s 1-0 quarterfinal win over Finland on Wednesday, a victory that ensured the Canadians will at least play for a medal at these Games. Should they beat Germany — a surprise 4-3 overtime winner over Sweden — in a Friday semifinal, they’ll be playing for gold. The Russians and Czechs meet in the other semi.

“It’s the chance of a lifetime,” said Kevin Poulin, the Canadian backup goaltender who was called on in relief a few minutes into the second period after starter Ben Scrivens left the game with an upper-body injury and didn’t return. “Coming into the Olympics we had one goal, and it’s the gold.”

Getting past Finland was no easy evening. The Finns played a neutral-zone trap that wasn’t easy to bust through. Canada’s only goal came off a faceoff in the Finnish zone won cleanly by Eric O’Dell to set up defenceman Maxim Noreau’s bomb of a slap shot that beat Mikko Koskinen high blocker with big velocity and zero doubt.

Finland succeeded in applying some serious late-game pressure. And that’s when we finally saw what we’d been waiting to see from the men in the national maple leaf. We’d been waiting to see their veteran grit, their win-at-all-costs intensity. Key shots were blocked. Key pucks were cleared. Almost every rebound was disposed of without real drama. So the Finns had pressure, but they didn’t have point-blank chances.

“Personally I felt that was our best effort collectively as a group. We made them work for everything,” Kelly said. “It’s not going to be high-scoring games moving forward . . . The smiles on the faces after a hard-fought 1-0 win — you can tell how good we felt.”

Canadian centre Derek Roy said he was so wrapped up in the defensive-zone struggle at the end that he didn’t even hear the horn sound.

“We were still battling in front of the net, and slashing guys, and doing whatever it takes to keep the puck out of the net. Once I saw guys coming off the bench, it was a relief,” Roy said. “They threw everything at us, and we were sacrificing bodies to keep the puck out of the net . . . Guys were literally jumping in front of pucks with their face,”

Like, really — Roy saw a teammate block a shot with his face?

“Not really. But we were diving everywhere,” Roy said, smiling.

Right. And if taking one in the face would have been necessary…

“Yeah, they would’ve took one in the teeth, for sure,” he said.

Hey, there’s always the next game. Save for Canada’s 4-0 win over the host team, when Gangneung Hockey Centre was enlivened by Korean fans who passionately shrieked every time their team so much as crossed the offensive blue line, the crowds at the Olympic tournament have been underwhelming. And though Wednesday’s stakes were considerable, the atmosphere was beyond dull. Entire sections were left gapingly empty all game. While Canada had pockets of supporters on hand, they couldn’t nearly fill the masses of aqua-marine seats that remained unoccupied.

So conjuring Game 7-style urgency without the Game 7-level decibel counts — well, it probably wasn’t easy. The first period, hockey played in morgue-like quietude, was a dud, with Finland outshooting Canada by the grand total of 5-4. But Canada picked it up in the second, outshooting their opponents 18-10 and commanding the bulk of possession. And the pace and force of the game picked up with the shot count.

Maybe the key to the game was the play of Canada’s fourth line of O’Dell, Maxim Lapierre and Ron Klinkhammer. That group played more than any forward trio outside the first line of Roy, Rene Bourque and Gilbert Brule. O’Dell’s line matched up frequently with what had been, coming into Wednesday, the highest-scoring line in the tournament, featuring 18-year-old Predators first-rounder Eeli Tolvanen. Tolvanen had three goals and six assists in four games prior to Wednesday. Thanks largely to O’Dell’s trio — not to mention O’Dell’s 82 per cent faceoff win rate — Tolvanen managed just two shots on goal in 18 minutes of ice time.

“You’re not going to win ’em all pretty. You’re not going to five-nothing your way to the finals,” Roy said. “And we knew that. It’s one of those games you’ve got to keep grinding . . . Just to go and know we’re playing for a medal, it’s a great feeling.”

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