1984 Olympic Hockey, Canada vs Finland

"I'm amazed," Canadian Amateur Hockey Association president Murray Costello said of Mario Gosselin,"The kid is so cool out there, relaxed, picking them off, right under control. This little guy, in this kind of pressure and he's having fun at it. He loves it."

Canada had just beaten Finland by a score of 4-2 to win their third game of the 1984 Olympic tournament with Gosselin turning aside 24 of 27 shots. The perfect start to the Olympics was surprising to even coach Dave King, "Even as a coach you have to be surprised they're playing so well. They're really on top of their game. You talk about the peaking process, I guess that's what we're going through right now."

Kirk Muller gave Canada a 1-0 lead after a period as Finland's chances were kept too a minimum. Canada peppered Finnish goalie Kari Takko with 17 shots in the period and 16 more in the second as Finland took the lead. King said,"I thought it was a good second period, but we just couldn't score. Probably the key to the game was our ability to cope with the frustration of not being able to score."

It paid off in the third as Canada scored three unanswered goals from Darren Lowe, Craig Redmond and Dave Gagner. According to the Canadian Press, Canada was becoming everyone's favourite underdog and the comparison to the Cinderella 1980 US team had begun. Dave Gagner responded with,"I don't want to compare this team to the 1980 team, but to get the feeling that a lot of people are watching us with the same feeling that people watched that club is very exciting."

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