WEST VALLEY CITY, UTAH -- This Sunday afternoon, barring an act of God, Canada will have the chance to win its first Olympic gold medal in men's hockey in half a century.

But given the fact that acts of God seem to be relatively common in the sport right about now, no one ought to take that entirely for granted.

Last night at the E Center, Team Canada beat Finland 2-1 in a tense quarter-final matchup at the Salt Lake City Games.

Though Canada controlled most of the action through the first two periods, and enjoyed by far the better and more numerous scoring chances, sterling play from Finnish goaltender Jani Hurme kept it close.

Joe Sakic and Steve Yzerman scored for Canada, while Niklas Hagman replied for the Finns.

Finland turned it on in the third period, but then it was the turn of Canada's goalie, Martin Brodeur, to steal the show.

For a jittery hockey nation, the win would have been enough good news, given their team's struggles through the early stages of this tournament.

As it turned out, though, that was just half of the good tidings. The other reason why there's such an air of content this morning, why everyone has a little extra spring in their step, is that Canada's opponent in the semi-final will be . . . get ready for it . . . Belarus. Belarus?

Yesterday morning, the former Soviet republic, which had to earn a spot by playing in the preliminary phase of the tournament before the big boys even arrived (and which has only one National Hockey League player on its roster) pulled off one of the greatest upsets in international hockey history, defeating Sweden 4-3. Up until that point, the Swedes (along with the Americans) had been dominant here, including scoring an easy 5-2 win over Canada in the first game for both countries. Can it be that that was only six days ago, or that only four days ago, Canada was forced to dig deep for a humiliating 3-2 win over lowly Germany? Three days ago, after battling to a tie with the Czech Republic, general manager Wayne Gretzky felt the need to stir up hate for Canada's opponents, claim that everyone else in the hockey world was against us, and circle the wagons -- which in sports, is normally a sure sign of desperation.

Along the way, two things happened: Canada's play steadily improved, and the breaks started coming our way. The former was obvious last night, the kind of confident display of skill and skating that Canadian fans expected all along. Though they lacked scoring finish, the lethargy, confusion and lack of confidence that characterized those early games are gone.

Still, there's nothing like a little dumb luck to go with our divine hockey right. Despite finishing the qualifying round with only a single win to go with a loss and a tie, Canada wound up with a remarkably easy path to the final because of circumstances entirely beyond its control. First, the Finns upset the Russians in their final game of the preliminary round, which meant that Canada benefited from finishing third in its group rather than second. Had they been a bit better, they would have had to face Russia last night, who beat the 1998 gold medalist from the Czech Republic 1-0 in one of the other quarter-finals.

And then yesterday morning, it was the miracle of Belarus. Had the Swedes won, as absolutely everyone expected, they would have been Canada's semi-final opponent tomorrow, and would have entered the game as solid favourites. Instead, it's a Cinderella team that must be thrilled just to have come this far.

Add it all up, and Canada could wind up playing for the Olympic gold medal without having beaten Russia, the United States, Sweden or the Czech Republic along the way. The chances of that happening, mathematically, logically, any way you want to slice it: just about zilch.

Actually winning the gold is another matter, of course. Should Canada defeat the pride of Belarus, one of two opponents awaits in the gold medal game: the Americans, flying high at home like the rest of their Olympic team, and Canada's conquerors in the last World Cup; or the traditional nemesis of the past 30 years, the Russians.

No easy afternoon's work in either case, but at least the big challenge comes when there's a gold medal on the line.

And who can argue with all of the signs of divine providence? If it's true, as Mr. Gretzky suggested during his now famous rant, that everybody down here hates us, it must also be true that someone upstairs has a soft spot for Canada.