Canada hold off Czechs

ByEurosport

Published 21/02/2006 at 17:01 GMT

Canada scored three goals in the first period and Martin Brodeur held off a Czech comeback as the Canucks beat the Czech Republic 3-2 on Monday to avenge their loss in the finals of the 2005 World Championships. Brodeur had 31 saves as the Czechs outshot

Defenceman Chris Pronger scored with less than one minute left in the first period to give Canada a 3-0 lead over the Czechs going into the first break.

Pronger added an assist on the game's first goal as Brad Richards opened the scoring for Canada.

Martin St Louis also scored for Canada in a first period where Canada had eight shots on goal, as many chances as they would get in the next two periods combined.

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After Czech goaltender Milan Hnilicka replaced Thomas Vokoun in the second period the Canadian offence looked pitiful. Hnilicka shutout Canada through the final two periods of play and the Canucks only had two shots on goal in the third.

Vokoun, the Nashville Predators goalie who was brought in to replace an injured Dominik Hasek, had performed well prior to Tuesday's match holding opponents to 2.35 goals per game.

But after the first period scoring bonanza, Czech head coach Alois Hadamczik opted for Hnilicka, a goalie in the Czech league for Bili Tygri Liberec.

Captain Jaromir Jagr also entered the game in the second to jumpstart the sputtering Czech offence as Pavel Kubina scored on a Jagr assist during a Czech power play to cut the Canadian lead to 3-1 going into the third period.

ICE HOCKEY 2006 Torino 2006 Canada-Czech Republic Vokoun Richards

Image credit: Reuters

Petr Cajanek scored for the Czechs two minutes and 41 seconds into the third period to give the world champions plenty of time to equalize, but Brodeur became a brick wall from then on to maintain his goals against average at 2.01 during the Olympics.

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