Hockey

CALGARY - The question came to Jeff Carter: "did you ever think you could sell out 19,000 tickets for a scrimmage in August?"

Carter shrugged, laughed, and replied "that's Canada for you."

Exactly 19,289 fans sold out the Pengrowth Saddledome in Calgary Thursday night for a scrimmage that at times felt more like a Stanley Cup playoff game. On the final night of Canada's four-day Olympic men's hockey orientation camp, 44 NHL stars split up and played a red versus white game, showing glimmers of the style of hockey Canada's team will play at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games.

The scrimmage was supposed to provide opportunities to work on the powerplay and penalty-killing systems the coaches had worked with the players all week. And there was an emphasis on injury-avoidance, so there was little body contact. But that didn't seem to hurt the tempo or the excitement level of the game, which ended in a 2-2 tie.

Goaltending was on parade. All five netminders jockeying for position on the Olympic squad had their dazzling moments. 2006 Olympic tandum Roberto Luongo and Martin Brodeur opened the first period showing off their experience. Luongo saved all 17 of the shots he faced, many of the saves spectacular. Brodeur kicked away 11 of he 12 he faced, allowing Captain Canada, Ryan Smyth, to slip one past early in the second period.

Young netminders Steve Mason, Cam Ward, and Marc-Andre Fleury all impressed as well, Mason going 13 for 13, Fleury nine for 10 and Ward 10 for 12.

"It's good for the game, the fans loved it, and it was terrific that we could put on a show like that," said Luongo, who appreciated the irony of being cheered with "Looooo" in Calgary. "It's good for the game, the fans loved it, and it was terrific that we could put on a show like that."

Jeff Carter and Patrick Marleau scored for the red squad, while Corey Perry scored a wrap-around powerplay goal to tie it up for the whites.

A comedic moment of the up-tempo game came in the third stanza when Joe Thornton appeared to kick in a goal for the red team, but it was disallowed. They replayed it numerous times on the jumbotron while fans hollered and Thornton and his teammates shared a laugh on the bench.

The scrimmage ended in a shootout full of interesting sights, including a bullet off the stick of Sidney Crosby past his Penguins teammate Fleury and a quick-handed goal by underdog Dan Cleary on Mason.

The outcome of the game mattered little, but the execution of systems did very much. Steve Yzerman and his coaching staff evaluated their 44 players in a game-like setting. They didn't do as much four-on-four or odd-man situational play as they wanted since Mike Babcock thought the evaluation was so close, that he needed to see more five-on-five play.

"They worked harder than I expected," said Babcock, reflecting on the four-day camp. "And I expected a lot from them."

"They are two weeks before their training camps, and these guys are in the peak of their off-season training, and they're in great shape," said Yzerman. "At the end of the day, there are going to be some difficult decisions, but it won't be because we didn't watch the players and study them enough."

"I'm not surprised at the fan's enthusiasm for it, but I hope people enjoyed it and understood it for what it was, and what we needed to get out of it."