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Canadians and U.S. are bundled out
 Russia scores the winner, as Canada was shut out again. SPECIAL REPORT
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSTORINO, Italy -- The Olympic ice hockey tournament underwent a seismic shakeup when reigning champions Canada and 2002 silver medallists the United States were bundled out of the tournament. Team Canada's executive director Wayne Gretzky headed for the exit in the final minute of their 2-0 loss to fierce rivals Russia. Finland booked their place in the final four with a 4-3 win over the Americans. Also through were Sweden, with a 6-2 win over Switzerland, while the Czech Republic ended Slovakia's unbeaten run with a 3-1 victory to book their spot in the medal round. In Friday's semifinals Russia take on unbeaten Finland while Sweden will face off against the 1998 Olympic champion Czechs. Canada and Russia, international ice hockey's two superpowers and fiercest rivals, engaged in another classic battle that featured non-stop action and brilliant goaltending. It was eventually decided by Alexander Ovechkin, the young Russian who is expected to become the NHL's next star. The Washington Capitals rookie sensation shattered the golden dreams of hockey-mad Canadians with just 1:30 gone in the third period when he took a feed from Viktor Kozlov and buried it behind Martin Brodeur. Asked why he left his private box with 33 seconds still left in the game, a visibly crushed Gretzky said: "I wanted to change our luck." The team had arrived in Torino in the shadow of Gretzky's alleged links to a gambling scandal in Canada -- something Gretzky denies involvement in. Questions over the selection of players also arose after Canada only managed to score in one of their last 12 periods on the ice. And as the man who handpicked the team, he knows the buck stops with him. "It's nobody else's fault," he said. Others in the team disagreed. "We weren't as good a team as we needed to be," said Canada coach Pat Quinn. "As hard as our guys tried tonight, it wasn't good enough to advance." Canada captain Joe Sakic agreed: "We didn't play well enough. We didn't deserve to win." Finns edge throughUnbeatable in the preliminary round, Finland showed no signs of letting up as they jumped to a 2-0 first period lead against the U.S. with goals by Ville Peltonen and Sami Salo. But the Americans, who lost to Canada in the final four years ago in Salt Lake City, fought back with a pair from Mike Knuble and Mathieu Schneider, the same number of goals Finland allowed in their first five games combined. Oli Jokinen replied with a pair of second period power play goals to put the Finns back out in front to stay. "I know we gave our best, everybody gave a great effort but we didn't put it together like we needed to," U.S. forward Bill Guerin said after the Americans' fourth one-goal loss in the tournament. "It's one of those things you just don't want to walk away from." Mike Modano, a three-time Olympian, was benched for most of the third period of the Americans' last loss and then took aim at his bosses. "You'd think USA Hockey would be a well-oiled machine, but it's not," he said Team general manager Don Waddell choked back tears as he tried to explain why the team he built was bounced out of the games with just one win -- against Kazakhstan. "We came here with higher expectations, and it's disappointing. But you have to move on." Reuters contributed to this report. 
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