Ice hockey at the 2002 Winter Olympics: Information from Answers.com

2002 Winter Olympic Games Ice hockey games were held at the E Center and Peaks Ice Arena in Salt Lake City and Provo, Utah. Both the men's and women's tournaments were won by Canada, defeating the host United States in both games.

Men

Gold:	Silver:	Bronze:
Canada Mario Lemieux-C Paul Kariya Ed Jovanovski Curtis Joseph Jarome Iginla Simon Gagné Chris Pronger Mike Peca Owen Nolan Joe Nieuwendyk Scott Niedermayer Adam Foote Theo Fleury Martin Brodeur Eric Brewer Rob Blake Ed Belfour Steve Yzerman-A Ryan Smyth Brendan Shanahan Joe Sakic-A Al MacInnis Eric Lindros	United States Bill Guerin Mike Dunham Chris Drury Aaron Miller Adam Deadmarsh Mike Richter Tom Poti Scott Young Doug Weight Keith Tkachuk Chris Chelios-C Tony Amonte Phil Housley- A Mike York Brian Rolston Tom Barrasso Gary Suter Jeremy Roenick Brian Rafalski Mike Modano Brian Leetch - A John LeClair Brett Hull	Russia Yegor Podomatsky Daniil Markov Alexei Kovalev Vladimir Malakhov Alexey Zhamnov Sergei Gonchar Darius Kasparaitis-A Pavel Datsyuk Igor Kravchuk Oleg Tverdovsky Pavel Bure-A Igor Larionov-C Sergei Fedorov Alexei Yashin Nikolai Khabibulin Boris Mironov Sergei Samsonov Valeri Bure Maxim Afinogenov Ilya Bryzgalov Ilya Kovalchuk Andrei Nikolishin Oleg Kvasha

Source:

Gold - "Team members Canada". International Olympic Committee. http://www.olympic.org/uk/athletes/results/team_uk.asp?PAR_I_ID=128815. Retrieved 2009-07-29.
Silver - "Team members USA". International Olympic Committee. http://www.olympic.org/uk/athletes/results/team_uk.asp?PAR_I_ID=128813. Retrieved 2009-07-29.
Bronze - "Team members Russia". International Olympic Committee. http://www.olympic.org/uk/athletes/results/team_uk.asp?PAR_I_ID=128808. Retrieved 2009-07-29.

Fourteen countries played in the tournament. Six hockey powers (Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden, and the United States) were automatically admitted to the final eight. The other eight countries (Austria, Belarus, France, Germany, Latvia, Slovakia, Switzerland, and the Ukraine) played in a preliminary round in two pools. The winners of those pools, Belarus and Germany, advanced to the final round with the six hockey powers.

The biggest surprise of the tournament was Belarus, 0–3–0 in Group D play, knocking off 3–0–0 Sweden in quarterfinal play. After that upset, the Swedish media held their players responsible for the loss, even going as far to publish their NHL salaries. The players responded by not returning to Sweden during the NHL break, although that was unlikely since the Olympics were held in the same continent as their NHL teams and play resumed soon after the Olympics ended.

Another major surprise was the silver medal finish of Team USA, which was not considered a contender as it was steeped heavily in over-30 veterans. Although it retained most of the players from the 1998 team which had performed below expectations, this time it was coached by Herb Brooks who had been responsible for the "Miracle on Ice" over the Soviet Union during the 1980 Winter Olympics. Despite being close to the end of their careers, Mike Richter and Phil Housley put up phenomenal performances. Brett Hull, John LeClair and Mike Modano formed the "Divine Line" which led the tournament in scoring. Ending up, USA finished second in the round robin.

The USA's semi-final victory over Russia came coincidentally on the 22-year anniversary of the upset of the Soviet team at Lake Placid in 1980. The Americans stormed out to a 3–0 lead for the first two periods, before withstanding a furious two-goal rally from the Russians to advance. Russian coach Slava Fetisov, ironically one of the stars for the 1980 Soviet squad, complained about the selection of NHL referees to officiate Olympic matches and charged that officials were trying to fix a Canada-USA final for North American audiences.^[1]

Canada had a lackluster start, losing 5–2 to Sweden, only managing to defeat Germany by a score of 3–2, and drawing with the Czech Republic. These performances prompted an emotional response from Team Canada manager Wayne Gretzky, in particular the referee's failure to call a clear hit from behind on Canada's Theoren Fleury in the game against the Czech Republic. However, Canada improved in the elimination round, defeating Finland 2–1, and easily sweeping surprise semi-finalist Belarus 7–1. Canada then won the gold medal, defeating the USA by three goals, 5-2. Canada clearly dominated the game and achieved the result speculated. This was the first Olympic gold medal in 50 years for the Canadian ice hockey team. Canadian Joe Sakic was named tournament MVP, having scored twice and assisted on two more during the finals.

Thanks to the much-anticipated Canada-USA matchup in the final in front of a North American home crowd, TV ratings for this match were the highest in Olympic history. In the United States, NBC's live coverage of the Canadian gold medal win drew a 10.7 rating, while in Canada, the CBC said that 10.6 million watched the game,^[2] making it the network's highest-rated sports show.

In the United States, the Canadian gold medal win was the highest rated hockey game, Olympic or NHL, since the 1980 Winter Olympics^[2] and was the largest network hockey audience in the U.S. in 22 years, while in Canada, the CBC said that the highest-rated sports show prior to the gold medal win came during the New York Rangers 3-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks in Game 7 of the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals, which drew 4.957 million viewers.^[2]

During the final, the legend of the lucky loonie was born when Canadian icemaker Trent Evans buried a one dollar coin (Loonie) under centre ice and both the Canadian men's and women's teams won gold.^[3]^[4]

The format of the tournament was the same one used in 1998 tournament in Nagano. It was controversial because the National Hockey League clubs would not release their players for the preliminary round. This severely hampered the campaigns of Germany and Slovakia, although the former country managed to qualify for the final group stage. Also the final group stage was criticized as being meaningless since all of the teams qualified for the quarter-finals.

The format was changed for the 2006 tournament in an effort to address these criticisms.

Preliminaries

Group A

Top team (shaded) advanced to the final round.

	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
Germany	3	3	0	0	10	3	6
Latvia	3	1	1	1	11	12	3
Austria	3	1	2	0	7	9	2
Slovakia	3	0	2	1	8	12	1

February 9

Germany	3:0	Slovakia
Latvia	4:2	Austria

February 10

Austria	2:3	Germany
Latvia	6:6	Slovakia

February 12

Slovakia	2:3	Austria
Germany	4:1	Latvia

Group B

Top team (shaded) advanced to the final round.

	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
Belarus	3	2	1	0	5	3	4
Ukraine	3	2	1	0	9	5	4
Switzerland	3	1	1	1	7	9	3
France	3	0	2	1	6	10	1

February 9

Belarus	1:0	Ukraine
Switzerland	3:3	France

February 11

Ukraine	5:2	Switzerland
Belarus	3:1	France

February 12

Switzerland	2:1	Belarus
France	2:4	Ukraine

Consolation round

13th place match

February 14

Slovakia

7:1

France

11th place match

February 14

Switzerland

4:1

Austria

9th place match

February 14

Latvia

9:2

Ukraine

Final round

Group A

	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
Sweden	3	3	0	0	14	4	6
Czech Republic	3	1	1	1	12	7	3
Canada	3	1	1	1	8	10	3
Germany	3	0	3	0	5	18	0

February 15

Canada	2:5	Sweden
Czech Republic	8:2	Germany

February 17

Sweden	2:1	Czech Republic
Canada	3:2	Germany

February 18

Czech Republic	3:3	Canada
Sweden	7:1	Germany

Group B

	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
United States	3	2	0	1	16	3	5
Finland	3	2	1	0	11	8	4
Russia	3	1	1	1	9	9	3
Belarus	3	0	3	0	6	22	0

February 15

Russia	6:4	Belarus
United States	6:0	Finland

February 16

Finland	8:1	Belarus
United States	2:2	Russia

February 18

United States	8:1	Belarus
Russia	1:3	Finland

Medal round

Quarter-finals

February 20

Sweden	3:4	Belarus
Czech Republic	0:1	Russia
United States	5:0	Germany
Finland	1:2	Canada

Semi-finals

February 22

Canada	7:1	Belarus
United States	3:2	Russia

Bronze medal game

February 23

Russia

7:2

Belarus

Gold medal game

February 24

Canada

5:2

United States

Leading scorers

Rk		GP	G	A	Pts
1	Mats Sundin	4	5	4	9
2	Brett Hull	6	3	5	8
3	John LeClair	6	6	1	7
4	Joe Sakic	6	4	3	7
5	Marian Hossa	2	4	2	6
6	Jean-Jacques Aeschlimann	4	3	3	6
7	Phillipe Bozon	4	3	3	6
8	Leonard Soccio	7	3	3	6
9	Mario Lemieux	5	2	4	6
10	Steve Yzerman	6	2	4	6
11	Nicklas Lidstrom	4	1	5	6
12	Mike Modano	6	0	6	6

Final rankings

Women

This was the second time the Winter Olympics featured women's ice hockey.

The tournament marked the arrival of Sweden as a Tier Two team, on par with Finland. This increased the number of world class teams to four, Canada, the United States, Finland and Sweden. As with the 1998 Winter Olympics, when the US joined Canada as Tier One teams, another major change in the status of International Women's Ice Hockey occurs at the Olympics.

Medals
Gold	Silver	Bronze
Canada Sami Jo Small Becky Kellar Colleen Sostorics Thérèse Brisson Cherie Piper Cheryl Pounder Lori Dupuis Caroline Ouellette Danielle Goyette Jayna Hefford Jennifer Botterill Hayley Wickenheiser Dana Antal Kelly Bechard Tammy Lee Shewchuk Kim St-Pierre Vicky Sunohara Isabelle Chartrand Cassie Campbell Geraldine Heaney	United States Sara Decosta Tara Mounsey Courtney Kennedy Angela Ruggiero Lyndsay Wall Karyn Bye Sue Merz Laurie Baker Andrea Kilbourne Allison Mleczko Jenny Potter Julie Chu Shelley Looney Krissy Wendell Katie King Cammi Granato Natalie Darwitz Chris Bailey Tricia Dunn Sarah Tueting	Sweden Emelie Berggren Anna Andersson Maria Rooth Erika Holst Anna Vikman Evelina Samuelsson Maria Larsson Kristina Bergstrand Ann-Louise Edstrand Josefin Pettersson Lotta Almblad Joa Elfsberg Gunilla Andersson Nanna Jansson Therese Sjölander Ylva Lindberg Danijela Rundqvist Ulrica Lindström Kim Martin Annica Åhlén

Eight countries competed. The top two teams in each pool advanced to the semi-finals.

Canada did not allow a goal in the preliminary round, while USA allowed only one goal. Canada trailed 3–2 to Finland going into the third period, but score 5 unanswered goals to advance to the final. USA had a fairly uneventful semi-final, shutting out Sweden. In the final, Canada outplayed USA despite being called for 13 penalties by the American referee (the Americans received four penalties). As a result, the game is considered somewhat controversial to many Canadian fans. The turning point of the game probably came when Canada's Jayna Hefford scored with one second left in the second period to give the Canadians a 3–1 lead going into the third period. This turned out to be the winning goal as the USA scored late in the third period on the power play to cut the lead to 3–2, but Canada hung on to win. It was the first women's hockey gold for Canada. Coming into the game, the Americans were 35–0 on their season, and had beaten the Canadians in their eight previous meetings. Canadian Hayley Wickenheiser was named tournament MVP.