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Woe, Canada! Switzerland stuns favorites

Hurricanes' Gerber saves 49 shots, shuts out defending gold medalists

IMAGE: BrodeurGetty Images
Martin Brodeur of Canada fails to stop Paul DiPietro's second goal of the game as Switzerland pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Olympic ice hockey history with a 2-0 victory over the defending gold medal winners.

The Canadians felt they had gotten a goal back when Gerber’s glove appeared to cross the goal line while stopping Rick Nash’s hard shot later in the second. But after an exceptionally long video review, Russian Super League referee Viacheslav Bulanov waved no goal — causing the pro-Swiss crowd to erupt with cheers.

The Swiss, somewhat undersized with 13 players under 6 feet, held on with excellent goaltending in the face of rush after rush. Only this time it was Gerber rather than David Aebischer, who beat the Czechs.

“It was unbelievable the way he played,” Canada goalie Martin Brodeur said of Gerber.

Maybe this wasn’t an upset equivalent to Belarus beating Sweden in the 2002 quarterfinals, but it was close. The Swiss neutralized Canada’s elite scorers — fitting for a team from the land of neutrality — as the Canadians went 0-of-11 on the power play.

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Finland's Olli Jokinen (L) and Swedish D
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“The Swiss team came to work,” said Quinn, who said his team didn’t skate well and spent too much time passing across the ice rather than up ice. “They played a better Canadian game than we did.”

And, if nothing else, the Swiss no longer must be reminded they lost to Canada 33-0 in the 1924 Olympics, the most one-sided hockey loss in Olympic history.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.


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