Golden Memories – 1995

Canada’s dream team reels in gold in Red Deer

By Aaron Bell

If Canada’s entry at the 1994 World Junior championships was known for their unknowns, the 1995 team was the polar opposite. A work stoppage in the National Hockey League allowed Canada to use all of their top under-20 players for the first time in the history of their participation in the event.

Jason Allison (London Knights), Todd Harvey (Detroit Jr. Red Wings), Ryan Smyth (Moose Jaw – WHL), Jeff Freisen (Regina – WHL) and Alexandre Daigle (Victoriaville – QMJHL), the first overall pick in the NHL Entry Draft by the Ottawa Senators, were all in the NHL to start the season before returning to their junior clubs during the lockout.

Harvey, one of eight returning players from Canada’s gold medal win the previous year in the Czech Republic, was named team captain.

Also earning spots on the team’s roster after the final selection camp in Edmonton, Alberta were OHL’ers Larry Courville (Oshawa Generals), Shean Donovan (Ottawa 67’s), Ed Jovanovski (Windsor Spitfires), Jeff O’Neill (Guelph Storm) and Jamie Rivers (Sudbury Wolves). The goaltending tandem of Dan Cloutier (Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds) and Jamie Storr (Owen Sound Platers) were selected to backstop Canada’s squad.

Talented team

Canada was clearly the most talented team entering the tournament, but Sweden also brought a strong entry and expected to challenge, along with Canada and Russia, for the gold medal.

“Everybody is expecting Canada is going to win the tournament,” said Niklas Sundstrom, Sweden’s offensive leader and a first round pick of the New York Rangers. “We plan to win a gold medal this year. We have it in our minds that we’re a good team and we’re going to try and get them.”

The showdown with Sweden, who won the silver medal the previous year, would have to wait until the tournament finale.

Canada opened with a pair of wins against the Ukraine (7-1) and Germany (9-1) in the first two days of the tournament. Storr and Cloutier split the opening games and neither goaltender faced more than 10 shots in any period. Canada scored nine powerplay goals in the first two games.

“These sort of games are confidence boosters for our team,” said Jovanovski, who scored twice in Canada’s ninth straight win against Germany. “I think from day one our team has shown improvement. We continued to improve as a whole. We all had fun.”

Disciplinary measures

Canada knew that discipline would be the key to winning the tournament. They had signs in their dressing room that read “Discipline over Emotion” and “Just Walk Away”, not so subtle reminders of the strategy that coach Don Hay implemented for the Canadians.

“That’s going to be the key in our next five games,” the coach said. “We walked away from some situations out there (in the opening games) that made me proud.”

Canada’s next game was against the United States, who upset Russia with a 4-3 win on the opener. The American team featured seven OHL players, including Rory Fitzpatrick, a Sudbury Wolves teammate of Rivers.

“We joked about it beforehand,” said Rivers. “I told him we were going to walk all over the States and he told me it was going to be ‘Miracle on Ice, Part 2’. So there is a little competition going on. But when you are on the ice, business is business.”

Canada scored four unanswered first period goals, including the highlight of the tournament when Harvey threw the puck into the top of the net from his knees. Allison also scored in an 8-3 win for Canada. Jamie Langenbrunner (Peterborough Petes) replied for the U.S., who was coached by Jeff Jackson, now head coach of the Guelph Storm.

Battling adversity

Canada faced adversity on the ice for the first time in their next game against the Czech Republic, who was led by forwards Petr Sykora and Vaclav Prospal, who along with defenceman Stanislav Neckar, were playing professional hockey in the United States.

Zdenik Nedved, a star forward with the Sudbury Wolves, gave the Czechs a 2-1 lead 16 seconds into the second period. They scored again three and a half minutes later before Canada responded with a pair of goals. They Czechs scored two more goals to take a 5-4 lead after two periods.

Canada tied the game with 4:09 remaining in the third period and Rivers scored the go-ahead goal 1:45 later. Storr maintained the lead with an astounding glove save on Vlastimil Kroupa with less than two minutes remaining before Freisen iced the game with an empty-netter in the final minute in front of 19,465 fans at the Calgary Saddledome.

Canada rode the momentum in to their New Year’s Day matchup against Finland. Courville and Harvey each scored and Allison picked up two assists to help Canada jump out to a 3-0 lead in the first 25 minutes of the game. The teams traded powerplay goals before the Finns scored twice in the final 25 seconds of the second period to bring themselves to within one goal.

Controlling our destiny

Canada scored twice in the first five minutes of the third period and went on to a 6-4 win that gave them the inside track on the gold medal. A win against Russia, who beat Sweden earlier in the day, coupled with a Finland win over Sweden would give Canada the gold.

“The way we look at it is we control our own destiny,” said Harvey. “We’re not worrying about what the other teams are doing. We’re focusing on beating Russia right now.”

The Russians struck first on a goal by Dmitri Klevakin 6:01 into the first period before Allison tied the game 41 seconds later. Eric Daze (Beauport – QMJHL) gave Canada the lead on a powerplay in the last minute of the period.

Daze scored again 32 seconds into the second period before Alexandre Koroliouk potted a pair of goals in a 46 second span to tie the game. Rivers regained the lead with his third of the tournament before Daze completed the hat trick to restore Canada’s two-goal lead.

With 1:01 left in the second Koroliouk fired the puck at Storr after the whistle and earned a 10-minute misconduct. On his way to the penalty box, the Russian slashed Lee Sorochan (Lethbridge – WHL) and picked up a five-minute major and game misconduct.

The Canadians scored three times in 38 seconds with the man-advantage, including the game-winner by Harvey for an 8-5 win. Vitali Yachmenev of the North Bay Centennials scored Russia’s fifth goal with 1:51 remaining in the game.

A little help from the Finns

Less than an hour later, Finland scored two goals late in the third period for a 3-3 tie against Sweden in Calgary that clinched Canada’s third straight gold medal.

“Winning is a tremendous feeling,” said Harvey. “When you get together with a bunch of guys, set a goal, commit to the goal and achieve that goal, it is a wonderful feeling.”

The team celebrated the gold medal win knowing that they had one piece of unfinished business, their tournament finale against Sweden, and a chance to become the first Canadian team to finish with a perfect seven win record. “That’s what we set out to do from the start and we’re going to do it,” said Rivers before the game.

Harvey and Allison scored in the first period and Canada held a 3-1 lead heading into the third. Eric Daze gave Canada a three-goal lead with a powerplay marker eight seconds into the third. Allison set up the goal and tied for the team lead with 15 points (three goals, 12 assists) in the tournament.

Sweden scored twice late in the third period but Cloutier shut the door to clinch the record-setting win.

“We made history,” screamed Harvey when the final buzzer blew. “We didn’t need this game, but we wanted to win one more for ourselves and the coaching staff so we could all go down together as the first Canadian junior team in history to go 7-0.

“It’s special.”

The stuff that dreams are made of.