Thirty Years of the Game at its Best

by Gare Joyce

  “They are not so good,” he said. “We are going to beat them. We are a much better team. We are better skaters. They play tough, but it’s a bigger ice surface and they’re going to have problems with that. They may be good, but they are not so tough.”

  Forsberg underestimated the roly-poly figure that guarded the Canadian goal. His name was Manny Legace, and he turned in one of the most memorable netminding performances from a Canadian junior in the program’s long list of stellar goalies.

  Legace gave Forsberg and other tournament observers a hint of what was to come with his wonderful 31-save effort against the United States. His shutout was preserved with 35 seconds left when forward Brian Rolston rang a shot off the post on Legace’s blocker side.

  “I remember kissing the post afterwards,” recalled Legace. “My ears were ringing from that shot. He beat me. But that game was not only a big confidence booster for me and for the whole team. We couldn’t have asked for a better result going into the big game against Sweden.”

  With Forsberg’s remarks about what he believed to be an inferior Canadian team taped to the wall of the Canadian dressing room, hard-nosed centre Tyler Wright stood up and addressed his teammates before the Sweden game. Along with Kariya and Martin Lapointe, Wright was one of three returning players from the junior team that endured the debacle in Füssen.

  Part of Wright’s message was about how it all started to unravel for Canada in Germany after Forsberg beat Eric Lindros on a faceoff in Canada’s end late in the game, which led to a tying goal in the dying seconds. Wright also had insight into what made Forsberg tick. The two had the same agent, Winnipeg-based Don Baizley, and they had become friends at the 1991 draft. Wright had trained with Forsberg the previous summer and Forsberg had also visited Wright at his home in Kamsack, Saskatchewan.

  Wright’s speech didn’t have the impact he hoped for. Canada was badly outplayed, but because of Legace’s determination the Canadian juniors were down only 1–0 after 20 minutes. Canadian head coach

  Perry Pearn blasted his teenagers in the first intermission. The harsh words did the trick. It was 3–2 for Canada after two periods and the kids hung on for a 5–4 victory.

  It wasn’t Wright’s speech or Pearn’s tirade that did the trick. It was Forsberg’s braggadocio. “What [Forsberg] said definitely gave us a boost,” Canadian defenceman Brent Tully said.

  The usually circumspect Pearn took a not-so-subtle shot at Forsberg afterwards. “I would like to know what Peter Forsberg thinks about our team now.”

  Even in defeat, though, Forsberg didn’t concede anything. “I thought we were a better team,” he said. “But obviously they were the better team. We lost. Sure, I regret saying it now. But we are still going to win [the tournament] anyway. I hope I don’t regret saying that. But I think Canada will lose at least one more game.”

  The Canadians did lose to Czechoslovakia in their final game in the round-

  robin tournament, but they had already locked up the gold medal by then. They had rolled over Russia 9–1 in a game that pitted Daigle against Viktor Kozlov, who was touted as a possible first-overall selection, two days after the sweet victory over Sweden. Then they escaped with a 3–2 win over Finland. In the win over Finland, Pearn and Legace again played key roles. Pearn, who went on to the NHL as a long-time, valuable assistant coach in Winnipeg, Ottawa, New York, and Montreal, is a master tactician but was not known at the time for his motivational skills. In fact, he wasn’t even first choice to coach the Canadian junior team that year. Alain Vigneault was originally named to head the coaching staff but had to resign in the summer when he accepted a position as an assistant coach with the Ottawa Senators.

  In came Pearn, who had been an assistant coach to Guy Charron in 1990 and Dick Todd a year later. Both tournaments saw Canada win gold.

  With Canada holding on to a slim 2–1 lead over Finland after 40 minutes, Pearn walked into the dressing room and cleared off the trainer’s table. He then took off the 1990 world junior championship ring that he won in Finland and placed it on the table. Pearn didn’t utter a word and left the room. He returned later to say: “This is what we came here to win, so let’s go out there and do it.”

  He knew that with only Germany, Japan, and Czechoslovakia remaining on the docket, a win over Finland would lock up gold. When the final buzzer

  Defenceman Scott

  Niedermayer and four

  of his teammates on

  the Canadian roster

  would be the first five

  picks in the NHL draft

  months after the

  victory in Gävle.

  sounded, Canada improved to 4-0 with a 3–2 win. The shot clock indicated that Finland outshot Canada 60–38. The Hockey Canada staff kept its own stats and its tabulation was 45–23.

  “I don’t think I faced 60 shots,” Legace said. “All I know is I was getting pretty tired.”

  Underneath his equipment Legace wore the threadbare t-shirt that he had pulled over his shoulders since his peewee days with the Don Mills Flyers, but he might as well have been wearing a Superman shirt.

  “I don’t think I was Superman,” he said. “I just went there to do a job for my team and my country. I was just trying to do my best.”

  When 32 hopefuls gathered in Kitchener for the selection camp in early December, Legace was considered a long shot to crack the roster. His competition included Jocelyn Thibault, Norm Maracle, and Philippe DeRouville. At that time only DeRouville had been drafted, the previous June in the fifth round by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Thibault and Maracle were considered two of the top goalie prospects for the 1993 draft.

  None of the four distinguished themselves at the selection camp, but Pearn and chief scout Sheldon Ferguson were first impressed by Legace in the summer at the evaluation camp. They liked how hard Legace competed and they had a hunch he would be the guy they could depend on.

  “I just thought Manny was a big-game goalie,” said Pearn, who went to grade school with Ferguson in Stettler, Alberta. “[Legace] is the type you want in there when you need a win. He is an extremely quick goaltender, who moves from side to side well. When you do that well in the international game, you will be successful.”

  Legace, a month shy of his 20th birthday at the time, was too good to be true on the ice and as humble as they come off the ice. He was so honoured to play for Canada that he stood ramrod straight as the national anthem played after each victory.

  While Thibault went 10th overall to the Quebec Nordiques in the 1993 draft and Maracle was taken by the Detroit Red Wings five rounds later, Legace had to wait until the eighth round before the Hartford Whalers called his name. The native of Alliston, Ontario, spent a season with the national team and then toiled away in the minors for almost five years before he made his NHL debut with the Los Angeles Kings. He wound up winning a Stanley Cup with the 2001–02 Red Wings as Dominik Hasek’s backup.

  Before he could claim his WJC gold, Legace wound up beating Germany 5–2 to set up an anticlimactic gold-medal-clinching 8–1 win over Japan before a small crowd of 625 in Hudiksvall, a fishing village 130 kilometres north of Gävle. The Hudiksvall rink was a beautiful wooden structure built in 1989 and provided

  a church-like setting for Canada’s subdued celebration.

  The Canadian juniors still had one more game to play against the former Czechoslovakia, which broke up into the Czech Republic and Slovakia at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Legace gave way to DeRouville in the tournament finale that turned out to be a 7–4 loss for Canada.

  But Legace already had locked up a spot on the tournament all-star team and top goaltender honours with his sparkling 6-0 record, 1.67 goals-against average, and.955 save percentage.

  “Manny was by far the best goalie, and maybe the best player overall in the tournament,” Wright said. “He did more than anybody on our team.”

  Many consider Manny

  Legace’s performance

  in the 1993 tournament

&n
bsp; as the greatest ever by

  a Canadian goaltender

  in the WJC. His num-

  bers (6-0 record, 1.67

  goals-against average,

  .955 save percent-

  age) have not been

  matched to date.

  A narrow win over the

  Swedes in the final

  game of the round

  robin set off a wild

  celebration. Here,

  captain Brent Tully

  leaps into the arms of

  his teammates.

  The depth of the Canadian junior program had never been tested like it was in 1994, when 10 junior-aged players had fixed themselves with addresses in the NHL or were trying to earn a spot on the Canadian Olympic team roster.

  The total almost had been 11, but Olympic team head coach Tom Renney released Martin Gendron to the Canadian juniors. This was a welcome development, because Gendron, the Washington Capitals’ 1992 third-round pick from Valleyfield, Quebec, was a prolific scorer who had checked in with five goals in seven games in the 1993 world junior tournament and would score six times for Canada in 1994.

  The Winter Games in Lillehammer were a mere eight weeks away when Canadian junior head coach Joe Canale and his assistants Mike Johnston and Danny Flynn assembled in Kitchener for the selection camp. After the debacle in Füssen two years prior, the Canadian junior program had adopted a policy requiring all possible candidates to participate in the selection camp. This policy was intended to help team cohesion—on and off the ice—during the selection camp.

  That made juniors Paul Kariya, Todd Warriner, and Brett Lindros unavailable because they were slated to play for the Olympic team hopefuls in the Izvestia Tournament in Moscow before Christmas, and they also were expected to see action on a six-game exhibition tour in Russia and the Czech Republic over the holidays.

  Joe Canale was

  considered by some a

  controversial choice

  as the Canadian

  team’s coach, but

  he left an indelible

  impression on his

  players.

  The younger Lindros didn’t end up accompanying Kariya and Warriner to Lillehammer because he didn’t make the final cut, but in the end, whether or not Lindros suited up for Canada at the WJC did not matter. The seven junior-aged Canadians in the NHL were Alexandre Daigle, Chris Pronger, Chris Gratton, Rob Niedermayer, Jason Arnott, Mike Rathje, and goalie Jocelyn Thibault.

  “We knew a lot would be said about who was not here, those 10 juniors playing in the NHL or with the Canadian Olympic team,” said Canadian junior captain Brent Tully, who along with Gendron and defenceman Joël Bouchard were the only returnees from 1993. “In a way not having those guys was a good thing for us. It took pressure off us. The 22 players we had were excellent players, very capable of winning a gold medal. If we were looked upon as underdogs, then great. It was all that more sweet when we won.”

  This edition of the Canadian junior team had the perfect coach in Canale to lead the way. He overcame an episode of extreme adversity earlier in his life when his junior coaching career was just beginning, but he patiently persevered.

  Back on February 20, 1978, Canale was a few months into his first major junior coaching job with the Shawinigan Dynamos when he was awakened by RCMP officers and arrested at his home on charges of trafficking narcotics in a Montreal coffee house that he had invested in.

  Though Canale was later pardoned, his coaching career had taken a hit. A dozen years passed before brave Chicoutimi Saguenéens owner Jeannot Harvey took a risk and hired Canale, who rewarded that faith by steering the Saguenéens to their first QMJHL title and a trip to the 1991 Memorial Cup tournament in Quebec City.

  “Joe was one of the best coaches I’ve had,” said former Toronto Maple Leafs netminder Félix Potvin, who starred for Chicoutimi during that championship season. “He cared about us as people. But he also knew the right time to lean on us and push us.”

  Canale, who assisted Perry Pearn at the previous world junior tournament, continued to push the right buttons in Ostrava, Czech Republic, in 1994, and he left an impression.

  “I was lucky enough to have Joe Canale as a coach for two gold medals,” Tully said.

  “As far I was concerned Canada should have had him coaching every year. But the way this one finished, it was definitely sweeter. You couldn’t ask for a better finish.”

  Not only did Canale have Johnston and Flynn by his side, but Pearn was in Ostrava, too. He was coaching in Switzerland for Ambri-Piotta and was on a break. Pearn was there to help in any way he could. But despite the absence of some of Canada’s best junior-aged talent, Canale had his team’s title defence headed in the right direction after opening victories against Switzerland and Germany by a combined score of 10–3.

  The third game of the tournament against Russia, however, was a different story. The Canadian juniors blew a 3–0 lead in the third period and starting goalie Jamie Storr was ineffective. So Canale made the move to backup Manny Fernandez for the next three games and the change had an immediate impact. Canada put forth its best all-around performance of the tournament in a 6–3 win over Finland.

  “We definitely proved with this win we are one of the top teams in this tournament,” said Canadian winger Anson Carter, who came to the forefront with a goal and an assist. “I’ll admit we were down on ourselves after blowing a 3–0 lead to Russia. We doubted ourselves after that game. But now we have nothing but confidence. We’re going to finish off these final three games with our best hockey yet and get that gold.”

  Canadian defenceman

  Chris Armstrong

  dumps Finnish centre

  Juha Lind in a victory

  that was likely the

  team’s best game in

  Ostrava.

  Jason Botterill, here

  fighting through a

  check, would end

  up with the shiniest

  medal collection of

  any player to come

  through the Program

  of Excellence. He

  won the first of his

  three gold medals in

  Ostrava.

  Canada beat the United States 8–3 and the Czech Republic 6–4 to set up a gold-medal-deciding game against Sweden on the final day of the round-robin tournament. All of a sudden the underdog Canadians were a win away from another championship.

  When the Canadians arrived at Ostrava a couple days before the tournament began, they found themselves in a hardscrabble setting. Ostrava was a steel town and the arena was on its outskirts. If the streetcar across the street went left, you wound up downtown. If it turned right, a few blocks later you were right in the middle of a steel mill.

  There were security concerns. Ostrava is near the Polish border. Pickpockets and thieves had their run of the city’s streets. Players were warned of the dangers and were kept under close watch. Storr’s father Jim had a jacket lifted in a downtown restaurant. Flynn woke up one night in his hotel room to find an intruder that he scared away with a shout before any damage was done.

  Because of these circumstances the Canadians were confined to one floor of the hotel that was right beside the rink. This turned out to be a good thing, because these teenagers quickly built cohesion, a togetherness.

  “As a coaching staff we didn’t focus on who could be on the team, but simply who wanted to be there,” Johnston said. “When we met for the summer camp and again for our training camp in Switzerland just prior to the tournament, our number one priority was to build this group into a real team. We tried to drive home the message that even though we had no NHL experience and no stars, we could come together and be a team.”

  The Swedish team was staying at the same hotel as the Canadians. The young Canadians saw up close and personal just how confident the Swedes were. The Swedes strutted around, believing nobody could touch them. They had finished second in the previous two tournaments, and thei
r lineup boasted high-end talent like Kenny Jonsson, Mattias Öhlund, Mats Lindgren, Niklas Sundstrom, Jesper Mattsson, and Anders Eriksson.

  They looked at the Canadians like they were a bunch of no-names. Canale and his staff played the underdog card to motivate their team.

  “We weren’t even picked to win a medal,” defenceman Bryan McCabe said. “Everyone had written us off because guys like Pronger and Kariya weren’t made available to us. But I thought the coaching staff did a tremendous job in using it as a rallying point. We just used it as motivation and ran with it.”

  The Canadians, 5-0-1, had what they wanted—a shot at gold. A loss or tie did them no good against the Swedes, who had six wins in six games. Canada needed a win. In the off-day before the showdown, there was a noticeable change around the hotel. All of a sudden the confident Swedes didn’t appear as sure about the outcome. They could see a determination in the Canadians.

  “We had nothing to lose,” Harvey said. “The pressure was on them because we weren’t even supposed to win a medal.”

  The only decision left for Canale was his starter in goal. Fernandez wasn’t sharp against the Czechs, so he went back with Storr. The move turned out to be golden. The Canadians jumped out to leads of 2–0 and 5–2 on goals from Aaron Gavey, Yanick Dubé, Jason Allison, and Gendron with a pair. But the Canadians didn’t make it easy on themselves. The Swedes beat Storr twice in the third period to set up a frantic final minute.

  Canada was short-handed and the Swedes pulled their goalie for a 6-on-4 advantage. Gavey made a sensational play when he intercepted a pass that would easily have been converted for the final goal. Then Rick Girard stripped Jonsson of the puck and scored into an empty net with six seconds remaining.

  Every one of the Canadian players jumped off the bench to celebrate. Luckily, the on-ice officials decided against a delay-of-game penalty for the exuberant bunch. Instead, the final seconds were ticked off the clock and real celebrations began.