BEIJING, Jan. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- Four years after beating the United States in one of the most memorable matches ever held to win the Olympic men's ice hockey gold medal at Salt Lake City, Canada enters the 2006 Turin Games as top title favorite again.

    Following its triumph at the 2002 Winter Olympics, the star-studded Canadian team continued to win consecutive world titles in 2003 and 2004. Despite a 3-0 loss to the Czech Republic in the gold medal game of the latest World Championship in Vienna, Austria last May, Canada hung on to the top spot in the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Men's Ranking.

    The defending Olympic champion will send a 23-member team to Turin primarily made up of veterans and former Olympians with all 23 playing in the National Hockey League (NHL).

    The surprises of the selection were the inclusion of one-time NHL pariah Todd Bertuzzi, who had been banned from the NHL for 17 months for his infamous on-ice attack of Colorado Avalanche player Steve Moore, and the omission of teenage phenomenon Sidney Crosby, the first pick in last year's NHL draft.

    The Czech Republic, who ranked third in the world behind Canada and Sweden, will look to repeating its glory at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics. In the first Winter Games that opened to NHL professionals, the Czechs held off Russia 1-0 in the final for their first ever Olympic ice hockey gold.

    The 3-0 upset victory over Canada in the 2005 World Championship final, which handed the European ice hockey powerhouse its fifth title in 10 years, came in time as a morale and confidence boost for the Czechs.

    Sweden, the world No. 2 and winner of the 1994 Winter Olympics,along with Russia and Slovakia, are also among medal contenders inthe Turin Olympics men's ice hockey tournament, which will kick off on February 15.

    With a mix of aging veterans and young unproven players, Salt Lake City silver medallists United States is not expected to make a serious run this time.

    Twelve teams will play in two groups at the Olympic men's ice hockey preliminaries with top four finishers from each group to secure places in the quarter-finals.

    Women's ice hockey was added to the Olympic Sport Program for the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano before the United States and Canada split golds in the last two Games. The two giants in the women's ice hockey will most likely to meet in the final again at Turin, just as they did in all nine World Championships since 1990,while Canada appears to have an upper hand considering its 8-1 record against the American women in those World Championships finals.

    In the games played in 2005, Canada beat the United States six times before the Americans finally recorded a win.

    China, who placed fourth in 1998 Nagano Olympics before slipping to seventh at Salt Lake City four years ago, failed to qualify for the eight-team women's competition. Enditem