Jaromir Jagr, the NHL's leading scorer, left the ice with a cut on his forehead after being rammed into the boards by Finland's Jarkko Ruutu.

Czechs lose Jagr, game to Finns
By Phil Coffey | NHL.com
Feb. 18, 2006

TURIN, Italy - It was a bummer of a night all around for the Czech Republic, who not only lost a key game against Finland, 4-2, to drop to 1-2 in the tournament, but also lost star forward Jaromir Jagr of the New York Rangers, who suffered a cut on his forehead after being checked into the boards by Finland's Jarkko Ruutu.

Jagr was digging for a loose puck along the boards when Ruutu came cross-ice and slammed into him. Jagr lay face down for several minutes before being helped to the locker room with 7:03 gone in the second period. His status for Sunday's game against Italy was unknown late Saturday night.

Ruutu was given a game misconduct for the hit.

The Czechs jumped on top with a power-play goal by Nashville's Marek Zidlicky at 8:25 of the first. The Finns countered at 14:14 when Olli Jokinen of the Florida Panthers scored on Czech goalie Tomas Vokoun off a pass from Montreal Canadiens' captain Saku Koivu.

The Finns took at 2-1 lead at 15:02 of the second as Dallas' Jere Lehtinen converted a Kimmo Timonen pass. But a second power-play goal by Zidlicky at 18:17 restored the 2-2 tie.

Finland netted the winner and some insurance in the third period. First, Teemu Selanne scored 30 seconds into the period off assists from Lehtinen and Koivu and then Lehtinen scored his second of the game at 8:33 to ice the win.

"I shot when nobody expected it," Selanne said of the game-winning goal. "You know, if you don't shoot, you don't score.

But seriously folks ...

"We played pretty well tonight," Selanne said. "It was a good effort from everyone."

"I didn't feel well, I had no reflex on my play," Vokoun said. "Sometimes it happens. I will be better.

He had better be, as the Czechs are running out of time and chances.

"You have to take seriously anybody," said Vokoun, who figures to play against winless Italy Sunday. "Our priority is the quarterfinals. We are not worried. We are a good team."

After a rash of injuries socked their roster, many wrote off the Finns, who are now 3-0 and looking good.

"I don't see any reason why we cannot win," goalie Antero Niittymaki said. "We have three-straight wins and we are going for a gold."

Forsberg provides big assist --Peter Forsberg didn't log his usual minutes Saturday, but the ones he did play helped make a difference for Team Sweden, who skated to a 6-1 win over Latvia after absorbing a humbling 5-0 loss to the Russians Thursday.

Forsberg, who has been sidelined with a nagging groin injury that forced him out of the Philadelphia Flyers' last eight games before the Olympic break, assisted on Sweden's first and fourth goals and reported he felt no problems from the troublesome injury.

"I felt good, I had no problems," Forsberg said. "In the first period I was a little tired. I didn't play too many minutes, probably around 15 or so."

Peter Forsberg provided a spark with his debut in Team Sweden's lineup.

Daniel Alfredsson of the Ottawa Senators paced the Swedes with two goals. Also scoring were Samuel Pahlsson, Nicklas Lidstrom, Henrik Zetterberg and P.J. Axelsson, who built up a six-goal lead when Maris Ziedins scored midway through the third period against the Rangers' Henrik Lundqvist.

"The game died a little when we were ahead by four or five goals," Forsberg said. "But until then, it was pretty physical."

"I think the way we skated was the difference," Alfredsson said. "They could not keep up at times."

Alfredsson said having Forsberg back made a difference as well.

"He was pretty good," Alfredsson said. "He creates so much offense. He helps our club in so many ways."

With Saturday's two assists, Forsberg now has 12 assists and three goals in 13 career Olympic games.

The victory gives the Swedes a 2-1 record, while the Latvians fell to 0-2-1.

Tie feels like a loss for both -- Neither Germany or Italy came away from Saturday's 3-3 tie feeling good about things.

The Italians lost a one-goal lead late in the game, and the Germans had wanted to tuck this game into the win column in the worst way.

"We feel as if we lost the game," German forward Stefan Ustorf said. "But it continues. The Italians played with a lot of emotion, they fought well for 60 minutes.

John Parco scored an early goal for the Italians and Christian Borgatello netted a shorthander score with just 1:32 left that set up the host country's biggest hockey win.

But it wasn't to be as Germany's Marcel Goc scored 15 seconds later to forge the tie.

"Ah, it was crushing," Italian goaltender Jason Muzzatti said. "It would have been beautiful for our fans."

The tie also is crippling to the two teams' hopes of advancing to medal-round play. Both are 0-2-1 and have Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland and Switzerland ahead of them. Italy still has games left against the Czechs and Switzerland. Germany also plays the Swiss and Finland.

"We were very disappointed not to win the game, but I give Italy a lot of credit," Washington Capitals goalie Olaf Kolzig said. "They came out with a lot of passion in front of their home crowd. Jason played great, but it is disappointing."

"Both teams needed a win," Muzzatti said. "That means we have a couple of big games up next. We need to get some points."