2002 Olympic Winter Games (Men)

Canada 7 - Belarus 1

Canada's Men's Olympic hockey team advanced to the gold medal game at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, with a 7-1 victory over Belarus on Friday. Canada will now face the winner of the USA vs. Russia semi-final game, which gets underway at 4:15pm (MT).

Steve Yzerman opened the scoring for Canada, drilling a shot past Belarus' goaltender Andrei Mezin at the 6:05 mark of the first period. Belarus would reply with a goal at the 13:24 mark of the period, but Canada rebounded late in the period when Eric Brewer beat Mezin to give Canada a 2-1 lead heading into the second period.

In the second period, Canada would add two more goals as Scott Niedermayer and Paul Kariya gave Canada a 4-1 lead. Niedermayer one-timed a Mario Lemieux pass at the 2:09 mark, which was followed by Kariya converting another Lemieux pass at the 13:28 mark. Canada was up 4-1 going into the dressing room.
Canada's young guns solidified victory in the third as Simon Gagne, Eric Lindros and Jarome Iginla all netted their first goals of the tournament to give Canada a 7-1 victory.

Martin Brodeur, despite a fluky goal in the first period, settled down to earn his third win of the tournament. Brodeur stopped 13 of 14 shots to record the victory.

Canada will now have one day to rest before facing either USA or Russia in Sunday's gold medal final. Canada will be looking to become Olympic champions for the first time since the Edmonton Mercurys accomplished it at the 1952 Winter Olympic Games.

Game Information
Game Number	32	Round	Semi Final
Arena	E-Center	City, Country	Salt Lake City, USA
Date	Friday, February 22, 2002	Time (MT)	12:00 PM

Box Score	1	2	3	Final
CAN	2	2	3	7
BLR	1	0	0	1

Goals & Penalties
First Period
Goals: 06:05 CAN Yzerman (Sakic, Blake) 13:24 BLR Salei 17:25 CAN Brewer (Yzerman, Sakic) Penalties: 01:52 BLR Kopat (Highsticking) 16:06 BLR Mikulchuk (Roughing) 16:06 CAN Fleury (Roughing)
Second Period
Goals: 02:09 CAN Niedermayer (Lemieux, Kariya) PP/AN 13:28 CAN Kariya (Yzerman/Lemieux) Penalties: 01:11 BLR Kovalev (Holding) 02:38 CAN Jovanovski (Tripping) 05:12 CAN Peca (Cross-checking) 09:59 BLR Mikulchuk (Boarding)
Third Period
Goals: 05:21 Gagné (Peca) SH 12:24 Lindros (Smyth, Nolan) PP 16:15 Iginla (Shanahan) Penalties: 03:31 CAN Niedermayer (High-sticking) 06:56 CAN Fleury (Hooking) 08:43 CAN Nolan (Roughing) 10:52 BLR Team/Équipe (Too Many Men) 17:43 BLR Tsyplakov (Roughing) 17:43 CAN Lindros (Slashing)