WEST VALLEY CITY, UTAH -- It was in December, on the day Canada announced its 23-member men's Olympic hockey team, that coach Pat Quinn made a telling point. Quinn was outlining his plans for the 2002 Olympics, noting that his job was "to let the spirit and ability within his players forth and prevail."

Quinn went on to stress the importance of managing the players' skills, mental and physical. Canada, he said, would face high expectations and with expectations, invariably there comes fear. Quinn's job was to ensure the team could manage its fear when things didn't go quite the way they liked, "to deal with it and still prevail."

Fear, so prevalent in Canada's camp during the first five days of the men's Olympic hockey tournament, suddenly gave way to rising optimism last night.

"The first couple of games, there wasn't a lot of talk in the dressing room," said centre Joe Nieuwendyk after Canada's 2-1 win over Finland. "There wasn't a lot of emotion. Guys were just staring at each other, wondering who was going to step it up, where each guy fit in this whole puzzle. It took a few days to become a team. Really, you're seeing it now. We're getting better every day. The emotion is really coming into the team. It's been clearly identified what everybody's supposed to do when they're out there.

"There's no second-guessing any more."

In short, on a rainy night in Utah, the clouds collectively lifted from a team that suddenly looks as if it has a clear path to the gold-medal game.

Canada did its part by eliminating Finland in a rematch of the 1998 Olympic bronze-medal game. Seven hours earlier, Belarus presented Canada with an unexpected gift, eliminating Sweden, the No. 1 seed in the C group, with an upset victory.

Canada will now say all the right things, about Belarus being a team it cannot take lightly.

But Canada now has a confidence it did not earlier in the tournament.

Unlike four years ago, when Canada produced a desultory effort against the Finns, it showed considerably more commitment and fervor in last night's game.

One game earlier, team captain Mario Lemieux put on a virtuoso performance on behalf of Canada. Against the Finns, Lemieux set up a highlight-film goal for linemate Steve Yzerman, but on balance, it was Joe Sakic's turn to shine. Sakic scored the all-important first goal, which traditionally has a deflating effect on goaltender Jani Hurme, the Ottawa Senators' nominal back-up, who played so well in Finland's upset win over the Russians.

Sakic didn't play in Nagano because he'd hurt his knee earlier in the tournament and, thus, was forced watch the two final games from the seats. For last night's game, Sakic's linemates were a pair of comparative youngsters, Simon Gagné and Jarome Iginla, two first-time Olympians who had struggled early to make their contributions.

Gagné set up Sakic for the opening goal and played a strong skating game. Iginla used his size to open up the ice for his linemates and made a terrific play on what could have been a third-period insurance goal, Sakic tipping his shot off the crossbar. Ryan Smyth, another one of the young turks, turned in a quality, two-way performance.

Many critics of the selection process thought Canada needed more of Generation Next on the team. In fact, until last night, the younger players had had a difficult time finding their rhythm. They were collectively better, more comfortable, more at ease, four games in, supporting strong games from both Lemieux and Sakic.

The Finns kept it close, thanks mainly to Hurme's heroics. Canada held a 15-5 edge in first-period shots; it was 29-13 after two. The Finns played a patient game, waiting for breakdowns that rarely occurred. Many times, in that type of game, when one team has so many chances and doesn't score, the tide can turn.

"Our job was keep going at it and make sure that didn't happen," said Niedermayer. "We had a lot of chances and only a one-goal lead. We could have got frustrated, but we didn't. And that's probably why we won." Canada began to exorcise its fear against the Czechs in the final preliminary game. The players' angst looked mostly gone against the Finns and it's hard to imagine that Belarus, which had been outscored 16-2 in its two games before beating Sweden, will cause it to return in any meaningful way.
eduhatschek@globeandmail.ca