Tuesday, May 08, 2007: Hats off to Matthew Lombardi

Calgary speedster turns the hat trick as Canada doubles up on Americans

MYTISCHI, Russia -- The puck had already been retrieved from the American net by the time one lonely red hat finally fluttered to the ice at Mytischi Arena.

It was one more than Matthew Lombardi attracted with his previous three-goal night in the National Hockey League. But the Calgary Flames speedster didn't bemoan a lack of headgear. He had paced Team Canada to a 6-3 humbling of Team USA on Monday at the World Hockey Championship.

And if no other Russians or Canadians in the crowd of 5,500 were inspired to doff their beanies in appreciation of his goal-scoring efforts, he knew his teammates and coaches felt differently.

Hard on the heels of their sixth straight win, the Canadians are headed to a quarter-final date with Switzerland on Thursday, rather than a battle with Finland, who would have been their opponent in the event of a regulation-time loss to the U.S.

The Finns now meet the Americans while the Russians take on the Czechs and Sweden plays Slovakia.

"Last time I had a hat trick was on the road, it was in Chicago a couple of years ago, so there definitely was no hats," said Lombardi, who scored the third, fifth and sixth goals for Canada. "I wasn't really thinking about the whole hat thing. I saw the one red one, so whoever threw it out there, I appreciate it."