Thursday, February 21, 2002
Can't-miss day for Canadian viewers
By PERRY LEFKO -- Toronto Sun
Hockey and curling -- Canada's two favourite winter pastimes -- had the country glued to its TV sets yesterday with channel changers firmly in hand.
You needed to bounce back between TSN and CBC to catch what collectively became the Miracles On Ice.
The biggest featured the Belarus-Sweden hockey game, shown on TSN and later simulcast for most of the third period on CBC after it ended live coverage of women's curling. Of all the decisions made during these Olympics, where events have collided with developing news, putting the game on CBC accommodated people who don't have cable.
Belarus' Vladimir Kopat scored what became the game-winning goal late in the game on a long-range blast that hit goalie Tommy Salo around the face and trickled in behind him. It provided the first of many highlight-reel shots on the day and, arguably, the most stunning single image so far in the Olympics.
"Do you believe in miracles? Somebody (once) said in the Games," analyst Harry Neale said in reference to Al Michaels' famous call from the 1980 Olympics.
Replied play-by-play man Chris Cuthbert: "I don't know if they said it in Russian."
CBC interviewed Andrei (Amazin') Mezin, who backstopped Belarus (or alternately known as Belaroosh or Belarussians, depending on the announcer) to victory. He seemed as stunned as anybody by the win.
It was revealed that Mezin once starred in Ontario Tier II for the Brockville Braves, making the guy as unlikely a hero as the title character in the movie Rudy.
Belarus' victory topped the upset of Great Britain downing Canada's Kelley Law in the semi-final of women's curling. The game was painfully boring early because of the refusal of the teams to take risks and the grating voice of Scottish skip Rhona Martin.
Colour commentators Joan McCusker and Mike Harris noted early Law's struggles with her out-turn takeouts.
"It's a subtle thing, but it's been happening all week," McCusker said.
'MORE THAN A FLAW'
"It's far more than a flaw," Harris said.
While Law improved as the game ensued, she and her teammates simply made too many mistakes.
"As disappointing as this is for Kelley Law, she knows she didn't play a good game," Harris said.
Back on TSN, the Russians knocked off the defending gold medallists from the Czech Republic.
Turning back to CBC, Canadian men's skip Kevin Martin and Swedish counterpart Peja Lindholm engaged in an exciting game of solid shot-making -- and the odd call. In one end, Lindholm had one of his players throw a rock down the ice without any intent to create a scoring opportunity.
Martin and his team made some outstanding hits to prevail and head to the final against Norway. Of course, by the time the game ended, only about 31/2 hours remained to Canada's hockey game against Finland and curling was suddenly swept aside. It was almost half an hour before CBC provided comments from the winning skip.
Back over to TSN, the Americans and Germans engaged in an ugly encounter: John LeClair was hit in the mouth with a stick and lost a tooth, which he retrieved on the ice; a German player was checked over the boards into his bench; and the German coach threw a hissy fit standing over top of his bench. But Brett Hull scored a gorgeous goal between his legs with his back to the net.
QUICK CUTS: Hard to understand CBC's dialogue with Dick Pound on doping. Does anybody really care anymore? ... NBC showed canned coverage of skeleton, in which Americans had a banner day.
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2002 Games News Coverage
