Canada's Women Show Their 'Klass(en)' On the Ice

Day 2

Speed skater Cindy Klassen settled for the bronze medal in Sunday's 3,000 metres at the Torino Olympic Winter Games.

Dutch teenager Ireen Wust captured the gold medal in a time of four minutes, 2.43 seconds at the Oval Lingotto. Wust skated in the 10th pairing, so was left to watch anxiously from the inner circle as contender after contender fell short of her winning time.

Klassen, also the bronze medallist at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics, covered the 7 1/2 laps in 4:04.37, well off her world mark of 3:55.75. Klassen even failed to win her pairing with Renate Groenewold of the Netherlands, who repeated as silver medallist. Groenewold clocked 4:03.48, almost a full second ahead of Klassen.

Klassen, from Winnipeg, faded badly over the final two laps and nearly stumbled as she cut inside down the stretch. Klassen had enjoyed spectacular success this season in the middle distances, setting new world records in the 3,000 and 1,500 on consecutive weeks and finishing second behind German rival Anni Friesinger in the 3,000 in World Cup competition at Turin. Friesinger, who, with Klassen, was considered the class of the field heading into the Olympics, finished fourth (4:04.59).

Ottawa's Kristina Groves placed eighth in 4:09.03 followed by Clara Hughes of Winnipeg in ninth (4:09.17).

Team Canada trounces Russia

Meghan Agosta celebrated her 19th birthday with a hat trick as Team Canada crushed Team Russia 12-0 at the Torino Esposizioni complex.

Charline Labonte stopped 17 shots in Sunday's victory, which guaranteed Canada at least second place in Group A. Canada can clinch the grouping with a win over Sweden in its round-robin matchup on Tuesday (CBC, 3:30 p.m. EST).

Hayley Wickenheiser had one goal and three assists. Vicki Sunohara opened the scoring 4:53 into the contest, leaping off the bench and charging hard to the net to convert a pass from Caroline Oullette. It was Ouellette's sixth point in two games. Less than two minutes later, Agosta banked in a shot off the stick of Russian goaltender Irina Gashennikova to make it 2-0. Gillian Apps smacked in her own rebound at the 10-minute mark for the first of two short-handed goals in the first period and Cassie Campbell worked into the slot to set up Danielle Goyette with 4:46 left. Cherie Piper later whisked in a loose puck off a faceoff and Wickenheiser scooped in a rebound after Gashennikova juggled the initial shot. Wickenheiser tops Canada with four goals overall. Agosta tallied her second goal on a breakaway with 40 seconds left, deking to the forehand and slipping the puck under backup netminder Nadezhda Alexandrova.

Canada eased off in the second period, but Katie Weatherston was credited with the eighth goal when Sarah Vaillancourt's pass struck her skate and fooled Alexandrova at 7:19. Agosta followed with Canada's first power-play goal, flipping in a rebound to complete the hat trick with 6:33 left. After Piper put Canada in front 10-0 with her second goal, a power-play marker 76 seconds into the third period, Vaillancourt scored at 7:47 before Carla Macleod completed the scoring with 7:27 remaining.

Charline Labonte was given the start in goal over Kim St. Pierre, who totalled five saves versus Italy. Canada trounced Italy 16-0 in Saturday's opener, the most lopsided victory in Olympic history, bettering its 13-0 pounding of Japan in the sport's debut at Nagano in 1998.

"We expected Italy to be weak," said Wickenheiser, who had three goals and two assists in Saturday's rout.

"I don't know if we would have predicted that score. But we're not going to apologize for winning by that much.

"It's the Olympic Games and we've got a gold medal to try and win. Personally, I don't like blowing out a team like that."


Later,
Kenaz