ICE HOCKEY ROUNDUP: SUNDIN LEADS WAY AS SWEDES STUN CANADIANS IN OPENER.

Byline: Daily News Staff and Wire Reports

SALT LAKE CITY - Canada's bid for its first Olympic men's hockey gold medal in 50 years was rocked Friday night by a 5-2 upset loss to Sweden.

The Toronto Maple Leafs' Mats Sundin scored twice and Edmonton goaltender Tommy Salo was outstanding, but it was Sweden's European system that baffled Canada's collection of NHL stars.

``We spent most of the game just standing around and watching them,'' Canada coach Pat Quinn said. ``That's going to have stop or we're going to go home Wednesday.''

Even if Canada loses all three games in pool play, it still has a shot to win gold. Pool play only determines seeding. But Friday's game showed a lot of flaws in Canada's game.

Although former King Rob Blake scored the game's first goal, the game was blown open in the second period when Sweden scored four times against Toronto goaltender Curtis Joseph.

Sundin scored at the 10:42 mark on a long breakaway pass by Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson. Sweden was able to exploit its passing skills because of the bigger international ice surface and the absence of the NHL red line.

With St. Louis' Al MacInnis off for high sticking, the Maple Leafs' Ulf Dahlen got a step on Blues defenseman Chris Pronger and beat Joseph to make it 5-1 with four minutes left in the second period.

In other games, the Russians, led by a goal and an assist from NHL star Sergei Fedorov, beat Belarus 6-4.

And the defending gold medalists, the Czech Republic, relied on Jaromir Jagr and goalie Dominik Hasek in an easy 8-2 victory over Germany. Jagr had two goals and two assists.