Winter Olympics/Ice Hockey: The Maple Leaf folk have one goal, writes Keith Duggan

IF you are looking for Canadians in Turin, the best place to go is the ice hockey rink. Although the Maple Leaf folk compete strongly in most of the winter sports, they convey the unmistakable impression that they are here to do the business on the rink and then get back to where it is really frozen and you can order moose pizza.

Yesterday was all about Team Canada. The women's team continued on their march towards gold. The men's team, favoured also to win the gold medal, only arrived in Turin yesterday with the cloud of a betting scandal following Wayne Gretzky, the chief executive of the national side and for a generation the god of professional hockey.

That scandal was exercising the minds of a group of Quebecois press men on the way to the Palasport Olympico, and they were less than impressed when they were asked to strip down to their actual clothes by the carabineiri at the security entrance.

Much to the amusement of his colleagues, "Sal" made an elaborate show of firing his jacket - sewn from the hide of some unfortunate animal who probably made the mistake of looking at Sal crooked - and then throwing his head back in imperious disdain.

Sal looked like the kind of guy that would, given only a quart of rye and a rusty penknife, negotiate his way from one end of Alaska to the other without a second thought.

But he was not getting through this security check without the Full Monty, and so, to the eternal delight of the other Quebecois male folk, Sal had to raise his arms and allow the carabineiri to pat him down where no other man ever has - or at least has and lived to tell the tale.

Sal was at the rink to watch the Canadian women's team destroy Sweden in a game that finished 8-1. It would have been more but Canada got tired scoring.

Although women's hockey dates to the late 19th century, it did not feature on the Olympic programme until 1998. Since then, the final has been all about the soap operatic battle for North American supremacy between Canada and the US.

Back in 1998, there was almost a diplomatic incident when an American forward, Sandra Whyte, was accused of taunting Canada's leading scorer, Danielle Goyotte, about the death of her father just day's before the tournament. To add injury to insult, the US then had the audacity to beat Canada 3-1 in that Nagano final.

That result was reversed in Salt Lake four years later, setting both countries up for another neighbourly showdown here in Turin.

Canada's performance against Sweden has been in keeping with their utter domination: they put 16 past host nation Italian and 12 past Russia without having their defence breached once. While the US have also progressed comfortably, comments have emanated from their camp suggesting that Canada should be embarrassed about pulverising teams as they have been. These are descendants of French-Canadian fur trappers on this team, and they weren't about to fall for such a clunky ploy.

"I heard the comments and there is nothing we can do about them," shrugged forward Cherie Piper.

"I stand behind every one of our players and know the class and calibre of people that I play with. You know, I wasn't around for '98, and any time you have two great teams together there is going to be a rivalry. It's about North America, it is the whole pride thing. And we take pride in hockey as a country and we take that on our shoulders. But we do try and focus on what we are doing rather than what they are doing or saying."

As Sweden's coach, Peter Elander, said: "Tough lessons are the only way to learn this complicated game. We skated well at times tonight, but when you play Canada the price is high for even small mistakes."

And that was true: there were sequences when the Swedes worked the puck forward with brilliant skill, only to be exposed by the Canadians' blistering speed and technique. As the losing coach put it, "Canada is the best hockey club in the world."

They are strong and sharp and super-aggressive: even when they went 5-0 up, they resented even the slightest Swedish threat on goal, with forward Sarah Villaincourt sent to the penalty box for elbowing her marker and veteran attacker Vicky Sunohara walking the line for hooking the legs from a Swedish girl who was about to shoot at the Canadian net.

"We were surprised at a couple of those calls," said defender Cheryl Pounder.

"We are just feeling the water right now to see what we can get away with."

Body-checking is not allowed in the women's game, which is as well for Canada's opponents: they look like the kind of outfit that would only relish the chance to hammer opponents into the glass. Indeed Hayley Wickenheiser made history four years ago when she became the first woman to score a point in men's professional hockey. Wickenheiser was playing for Kirkkonummi Salamat in the second division of the Finnish league, a world that sounds so dark that even Sal might think twice about it.

Meanwhile, Canada and the US skate on towards what promises to be a spectacular collision in the gold medal game on Monday night.