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After some shaky play in the Olympic tournament, Tomas Vokoun rebounded to shut out Team Russia 3-0 in the bronze medal game.
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Czechs blank Russians for bronze
By Rich Libero | NHL.com | Feb. 25, 2006
TORINO, Italy - Alexander Ovechkin, Russia's
dynamic young forward, trudged down the corridor for
what would be the final period in his Olympic debut.
Just before stepping on the ice, he kissed the blade
of his stick in an attempt to woo out of it a goal or
two.
It didn't work.
The Czech Republic built a 2-0 lead over two periods
and extended the Russian scoreless streak to 120:23 en
route to a 3-0 victory and the bronze medal Saturday
night. The Czechs managed to mine a medal with a 4-4
record in the eight-game tournament.
"I really think teams figured us out," Russian
goaltender Evgeni Nabokov said.
Finland applied a five-man game to Team Russia in
their semifinal, choking out the neutral zone and the
middle of the ice. Throughout the tournament the
Russians repeatedly said that if they played a team
game and didn't rely on their individual talents to
win games, they would be unstoppable.
"They put us in a position where we had to play
individual hockey," Nabokov said. "They took away the
speed and the passing lanes. We dominated the corners,
but whereas we scored from the crease in the Canada
match, we were not able to do that tonight. I think
the Finns showed them how to play against us."
Martin Erat opened the scoring with a slap shot from
the left circle in the midst of a delayed penalty at
4:48 of the first period. Robert Lang won a loose puck
behind the net and distributed his prize to David
Vyborny at the bottom of the circle. The Columbus Blue
Jackets forward spotted Erat to set up the shot.
The turning point of the game came in the second
period and it started with some light shoving between
Czech defenseman Pavel Kubina and Russian whiz-kid
Evgeni Malkin. For some reason, Ilya Kovalchuk took
offense and on the ensuing faceoff caught Kubina with
a vicious check that send him smashing head-first into
the boards.
"We'll wait till tomorrow morning and see the doctor,"
Kubina said. "But right now I am just feeling really
tired. I was going to the corner between two guys,
that's all I remember. I saw one on the right, but he
came on the left."
Kubina was cut, stunned and left the ice for the
remainder of the game. So did Kovalchuk who receive a
five-minute major and a game misconduct for boarding.
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The Czech Republic added a bronze medal to the gold they won at the 1998 Games in Nagano.
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"It was a little detail and in a game like this it
mattered," Nabokov said.
Marek Zidlicky made the Russians pay with a slap shot
from the top of the slot at 6:36.
The Russians had a chance to equalize with 14 seconds
to go in the period when Alexander Kharitonov whiffed
on a bouncing puck and a yawning net.
"We watched a little bit of the (Russia-Finland) game,
yes," Czech goaltender Tomas Vokoun said. "There's no
secret to beating the Russians. The Finns didn't come
up with it. You beat a team by playing as a team with
a solid effort and great goaltending."
Vokoun, who was benched in favor of Milan Hnilicka in
the Czech's quarter- and semi-finals matches, received
some vindication by stopping all 28 Russian shots.
"Playing for the bronze medal is hard," Vokoun said.
"Losing a semifinal is very breaking. We were still
disappointed for what happened (Friday) with Sweden,
but we won and I'm happy for the medal."
The Russians did put the puck in the net at 16:08 of
the third period when Pavel Datsyuk swatted at a loose
puck. Referee Thomas Andersson quickly ruled against
the goal, calling it a high stick. Datsyuk protested
fiercely and, in the process of skating by Andersson,
bumped the official's elbow with his helmet, drawing
10-minute misconduct.
Martin Straka sealed the scoring by trading passes
with Erat and eventually sliding the puck into an
empty net with eight seconds to play.
"For me, personally, the bronze is a great result even
if I'm sure that if we had played better with Sweden,
we would have been on the ice tomorrow and not
tonight."
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