A Sad Day for Canada - Czech Republic Blanks Canada 3-0 at Ice Hockey Worlds

[The Doctor]

FIRST NO NHL SEASON, NOW THIS:


Czech Republic blanks Canada 3-0 at ice hockey worlds
By STEPHAN NASSTROM, AP Sports Writer
May 15, 2005

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Martin Rucinsky made sure the Czech Republic wouldn't need overtime or a shootout to win the world hockey championship.

Rucinsky set up Vaclav Prospal's first-period goal, and scored one of his own in the third as the Czech Republic denied Canada its third straight title and won the world championship 3-0 Sunday.

Tomas Vokoun, named the tournament's best goalie, made 29 saves in earning the shutout.

The Czechs (8-1) hadn't won the gold since 2001 when they captured their third straight. It is their fifth world championship since 1996.

It didn't come easy as the Czechs beat the United States in a shootout to win their quarterfinals game on Thursday, and then eliminated Sweden -- the runners-up the past two years -- Saturday to win that semifinal matchup 3-2 in overtime.

Rucinsky gave the Czechs a 2-0 lead 3:14 into the third period, beating Canadian goalie Martin Brodeur with a slap shot to the glove side from the top of the left circle after a fast rush. Linemate Jaromir Jagr, a five-time NHL scoring champion, set up the goal.

Jagr and Jiri Slegr are the first Czech players to win the Stanley Cup, an Olympic gold medal, and a world title.

Prospal made it 1-0 when he knocked a rebound past Brodeur at 4:13 of the first after Rucinsky hit the post off a nice pass from Jagr.

Canada (6-2-1) pulled Brodeur for an extra attacker during a power play in the last minute, but it was too late. Josef Vasicek sealed the victory with an empty-net goal, scoring from outside the offensive zone with 53 seconds remaining.

Thousands of flag-waving Czech fans celebrated the victory at Stadthalle.

In a wide-open second period, Simon Gagne had two excellent scoring chances for Canada that were turned aside. Joe Thornton and Rick Nash, voted to the All-Tournament's team, finished 1-2 in the scoring race, but were held off the board Sunday.


Earlier in the day, Maxim Afinogenov had two goals and an assist to lead Russia to a 6-3 victory over Sweden in the bronze-medal game.

Afinogenov scored just 1:02 in and added his second goal at 3:58, both off assists by Alexander Ovechkin -- last year's top NHL draft pick by the Washington Capitals. That helped lift Russia to a world championships medal for only the third time since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Russia finished a disappointing 10th last year, but rebounded for a 6-1-2 performance. The only loss came Saturday, 4-3 to Canada in the semifinals.

Ovechkin, 19, also scored as the Russians knocked Henrik Lundqvist, a New York Rangers goalie prospect, out of the game with three first-period goals.

``We're happy, but we're disappointed with what happened in the last game because we lost to Canada,'' said Ovechkin, who scored five goals in the tournament. ``My best game was today, because we won third place. You always want to win your last game of the season.''

Sweden (6-3) had its medal streak snapped at four.

Ronnie Sundin cut Sweden's deficit to 2-1 with a power-play goal at 8:11 of the first period but Alexei Kovalev restored Russia's two-goal lead at 15:24.

Henrik Zetterberg made it 3-2 with 47 seconds left of the period.

But Ovechkin, Alexei Yashin and Alexander Semin scored three unanswered goals against Johan Holmqvist in the second period to give Russia a 6-2 lead.

Henrik Sedin scored a third-period goal for Sweden, which was outshot 32-23.

Maxim Sokolov, Russia's first-string goalie, went the distance.

Before the worlds, Russia beat Sweden in the two-game final series to win the European Hockey Tour -- the finale of Europe's top three hockey tournaments -- for the first time.

Sweden made it to the medal round of this tournament despite missing four of its biggest stars. Former NHL MVP Peter Forsberg, Markus Naslund, Mats Sundin and defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom all sat out because of injuries and personal reasons.

Updated on Sunday, May 15, 2005 5:28 pm EDT

[DrunkenGoon]

Wow, no relation between the title of the article and actual facts... What makes it such a say day? The Czechs were the better team and won it. Now give us a break with sensationalism based headlines.

I guess the only noteworthy news about this article is that a Texas based reporter is still interested in covering hockey. I didn't think there were any left.

[dangeris]

lousy game today and poor performance by canada. the better team definitely won. size for size, some countries are much better than canada.

[CrazyCanadian]

And what countries are those hot shot???????

U must be american

[The Doctor]

"What makes it such a say day?"

It's sad because Canada lost and instead of being in the midst of an exciting NHL playoff season the rinks are dark and empty.

A little touchy on the subject I take it?

[dangeris]

Originally posted by: CrazyCanadian And what countries are those hot shot???????

U must be american

czech republic is the obvious one, slovakia another. these countries have, what, 5-10 million people. year after year they are punching above their weight. it's inexcusable that canada struggles against these small countries, particularly since hockey is our national sport. do you honestly believe that if the czechs had 15-20 million more people canada would be better than them?

btw, i'm not american.

U must be crazy

[CrazyCanadian]

OK SO YOUR SAYING THAT BECAUSE CZECH BEAT US IN ONE GAME THEY ARE OVERALL BETTER THAN US?????? IF THATS THE CASE WHY DO U PUT THE SLOVAKS AHEAD OF US????? WE JUST BEAT THEM......COME ON GIVE UR HEAD A SHAKE

[dangeris]

i said "size for size." i didn't say that czechs are better because they just beat canada, and i'm not basing this on a handful of recent games. my point is that canada plays WAY below their potential, and that's sad to watch when tiny countries are more talented and better organized.

[CrazyCanadian]

well, were alot smaller than the US or russia and we beat on them everytime

[Conrad]

How big was this competition? Can't say I bothered to watch a single match.

Canada won the big one, and that was OLYMPIC GOLD. Was a great day for them, and they fully deserved the greatest prize of all.

[heyyrob]

who gives a fuk?

[neilm]

Originally posted by: Conrad
How big was this competition? Can't say I bothered to watch a single match.

For the first time in years it had the potential to be big. The World Championships coincide with the 2nd round through finals of the NHL playoffs so in other years the countries had to patch together rosters with Euro league players and players from teams eliminated from the playoffs who were willing to give up their time for the tourney.

Unfotunately this year, without an NHL season, many of the seasoned superstars elected to not play in Europe during the lockout and were thus unwilling to play in this tournament despite no NHL season. What had the potential to be a fabulous Olympic/World Cup like tourney quickly fizzled as you can see from some of the players who didn't or couldn't play, just listing some from two teams....

Sweden - Forsberg, Sundin, Naslund, Listrom

Canada - Sakic, Iginla, Blake, Pronger, Niedermayer

So, the tourney kinda fizzled in that respect, but it was still enjoyable in that we got to see some decent hockey played by some pretty good players and teams.....

[hockeystl]

ESPN didn't televise any of this did they? That speaks volume for the sport of hockey. One would think a network would want to put ANY quality hockey on the air, given the lack of NHL Playoffs. Obviously that wasn't the case.

Sad to say it, but the sport is in its darkest hour.....