Vancouver (AFP) – Dany Heatley and Jarome Iginla scored two goals each as Canada beat Norway 8-0 in their opening game of the men’s Olympic hockey tournament on Tuesday.

Roberto Luongo recorded a shutout stopping all 15 shots he faced for Canada who have now won their opening game in (18) of (19) of Olympic tournaments.

After a scoreless first period, second seeded Canada scored two goals just two minutes apart early in the second period.

Iginla got things started with the first goal of the game two and a half minutes into the second on a slap shot from the high slot.

Heatley then deflected a Chris Pronger shot from the point past Norwegian goalie Pal Grotnes at 4:27 into the second to make it 2-0.

Iginla got his second in the third period by finishing off a nice two-on-one break with Rick Nash and Heatley fired a high slap shot to the top corner.

Iginla is one of four Canadians who played on the gold medal winning team in 2002 Salt Lake Olympics. The others are goalie Martin Brodeur, defenceman Scott Niedermayer and defenceman Pronger.

Canada continued its domination of Norway at the Olympic Games with Tuesday’s win. They have outscored Norway (37-3) in four matches, including a 10-0 thrashing at the 1992 Albertville Olympic Games.

Canada, with its roster full of NHL superstars, were the heavy favourites heading into the game against Norway, which has just one NHL player Ole Kristian Tollefsen. Most of the Norwegians have full-time jobs outside of hockey.

Canadian goaltender Luongo weathered a five-on-three halfway through the second period when Norway had some its best scoring opportunities.

Luongo was playing in front of his home fans as he is the goalie for the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks.

Whistler (AFP) – German pin-up Magdalena Neuner will be chasing her third Olympic medal in Thursday’s 15km individual event as the Germany team look to underline their status as biathlon queens.

Neuner’s gold medal in Tuesday’s 10km pursuit was the Germany team’s 15th in Olympic Winter Games history and their 40th overall.

Germany has won at least one medal in the individual event every year since biathlon was added to the women’s Olympic program in 1992 and are expected to be amongst the medallists in the women’s 15km individual event.

Neuner, the defending World Cup 15km champion, will start as favourite alongside Sweden’s Helena Jonsson and Anna Carin Olofsson-Zidek who are first and second in the overall World Cup rankings.

There is plenty of experience amongst the rest of the Germans with Andrea Henkel, the gold medallist in 2002, looking to repeat her success from Salt Lake City.

And Kati Wilhem, a master sargeant in the German army, is the defending World champion in the event and looking for her fourth Olympic gold medal.

But they could all be beaten by Simone Hauswald, who has good memories of the course here having won the 15km event at the test event held at Whistler Olympic Park in March 2009.

Tora Berger of Norway will be one to watch as well as she is one of the most consistent competitors.

Only one non-European biathlete – Canada’s Myriam Bedard in 1994 at Lillehammer – has won a biathlon medal and that does not look like changing in Whistler.

The athletes start at 30 second intervals and between loops of a cross-country circuit, each racer will stop four times to take five shots at a target 50 meters away, twice each in the prone and standing positions.

In the individual event, the penalty for a miss is one additional minute which is added to the biathletes time and the winner has the fastest overall time.

Vancouver (AFP) – Vancouver Games organisers Tuesday hit back at stinging criticism from international media – especially in Britain – over problems the press say are plaguing the Games.

The Olympics have been blighted by weather woes that have forced delays to key events and the cancellation of thousands of tickets for snowboard and freestyle skiing due to safety issues for spectators.

Friday’s opening ceremony was overshadowed by the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, which led to criticism of track safety.

Even the location of the Olympic flame in downtown Vancouver – behind a fence – has been a source of controversy.

But organisers said they are shocked by the ferocity of the criticism and believe it is not giving a true picture of the Games.

“Yes, it shocks me a lot because our assessment is that the competitions are excellent, the athletes are very satisfied,” said Renee Smith-Valade, spokeswoman for organising committee VANOC.

“We can’t do anything about the weather, all we can do is react properly to it.

“In our view, the reactions we are getting from spectators here and on television are that the Games are excellent, that Canadians are proud and that the Games are a great success.”

She said that challenges for the hosts of Winter Games were nothing new and that organisers of the 1988 Calgary Olympics were forced to postpone dozens of events because of warm weather.

“There’s no question we’ve seen some press in Britain that we would look at and wonder which city the reporter’s reporting from,” Smith-Valade said.

“It doesn’t feel like it’s here because we’re seeing people out on the streets celebrating.”

International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams praised the Games, saying the IOC was “impressed and continue to be impressed by the level of organisation. It’s been a very well-organised Games”.

“What I read in the British papers bears absolutely no relation to what I’ve been seeing in these Games,” he added, saying that previous Games had also been hit with problems, with thousands of tickets cancelled at Nagano in 1998, for example.

West Vancouver, BC ― General admission standing room tickets have been cancelled for Olympic men’s and ladies’ snowboard halfpipe on February 17 and 18; ski cross on February 21 and 23; and snowboard parallel giant slalom on February 26 and 27 at Cypress Mountain. Tickets will be refunded, said the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC).