Canada, Czechs meet
VIENNA, Austria — Canada nearly blew a four-goal lead before hanging on to beat Russia 4-3 Saturday and reach its third straight final at the world hockey championships.
Wade Redden, Sheldon Souray, Dany Heatley and Ed Jovanovski scored for the two-time defending champions, who will play for the gold medal today against the Czech Republic — a 3-2 overtime winner over Sweden.
The matchup is a repeat of the 1996 championship game in Vienna, when the Czech Republic beat Canada to win its first of four world titles. Canada beat Sweden in the final the past two years.
“Every year is different, but this year is special,” said Heatley, a key forward on Canada’s last two championship teams. “It’s a new team. We grew together and it’s good to be there again. Our goal from day one was to have a chance to win, and now we have that chance.”
Martin Brodeur gave his team the opportunity by making 39 saves.
The Czechs reached the final for the first time since 2001 when Radek Dvorak ripped a wrist shot that struck the goal cam and bounded out of the net 4:43 into overtime. A video replay confirmed that the goal was good and that the Czech Republic would return home with its first medal in four years.
Dvorak’s shot past goalie Henrik Lundqvist was his first goal since the 2001 worlds.
“He (Dvorak) disappeared behind the defenseman and I saw the puck too late,” Lundqvist said. “I knew it was a goal. Of course, it’s disappointing because we played a good game.”
That came on the heels of their shootout victory over the United States in the quarterfinals, a game the Czechs trailed 2-0 in the third period.
“We didn’t expect them (Sweden) to be so good,” Czech Republic coach Vladimir Ruzicka said. “We were lucky on Thursday (against the United States) and we were lucky again tonight.”
Daniel Sedin got Sweden into overtime by lifting a shot over goalie Tomas Vokoun at 12:03 of the third period during a power play. Twin brother Henrik, also his Vancouver Canucks teammate, set it up with a pass from behind the net.
In the earlier game, Canada took a 3-0 lead on first-period goals by Redden, Souray and Heatley. Russia, which got goals from Alexander Semin, Alexei Yashin and Alexander Ovechkin, will play Sweden today for the bronze.