Football
20y

Czech Republic rolls past Canada at World Championships

PRAGUE, Czech Republic - The Czech Republic rolled into
the quarterfinals of the World Championships on Monday with a
6-2 rout of Canada.

Former NHLer Josef Beranek scored twice and Milan Kraft of the
Pittsburgh Penguins and Vaclav Prospal of the Mighty Ducks of
Anaheim each added a goal and an assist for the hosts, who
finished atop Group E and will face the United States on
Wednesday in the first quarterfinal.

"The victory is good for our confidence," Czech coach Slavomir
Lener said.

Jiri Dopita, who struggled in the NHL during stints with
Philadelphia and Edmonton, opened the scoring 4 1/2 minutes into
the game and Beranek doubled the lead at 6:57.

Boston Bruins sniper Glen Murray got Canada on the board with a
power-play tally in the opening minute of the second period, but
Martin Rucinsky of the Vancouver Canucks restored the Czechs'
two-goal lead less than six minutes later.

Prospal made it 4-1 on the power play just 19 seconds into the
third period and, after Edmonton's Ryan Smyth answered for
Canada, Beranek and Kraft capped the scoring in a 33-second
span.

"The Czechs did a good job at controlling their emotions in this
noisy arena," Canada coach Mike Babcock said. "We were far
from how we wanted to play. We have to learn from it and
improve."

Canada's opponent in Thursday's quarterfinal will be Finland,
which eliminated Russia from medal contention with a 4-0
blanking.

Mika Noronen of the Buffalo Sabres made 19 saves and New York
Islanders defenseman Janne Niinimaa collected three assists for
the Finns, who broke open a tight game with three third-period
goals.

It was an ignominious end for Russia, whose only wins in six
games came against Denmark and lowly Japan.

The Russian loss essentially secured a berth in the 2006
Olympics for the United States, which is guaranteed a spot among
the top eight teams in this tournament. The U.S. also
announced the addition of St. Louis Blues defenseman Eric
Weinrich to its roster.

In other games, Latvia clinched a spot in the quarterfinals with
a 5-2 win over Austria as Nashville Predators center Sergei
Zholtok collected a goal and an assist. And Sweden battled to a
0-0 tie with Slovakia in a duel between Henrik Lundqvist and
Jan Lasak, who leads the tournament with four shutouts.

In the relegation round, Dmitri Upper scored with 3:39 remaining
as Kazakhstan rallied for a 2-2 tie with Ukraine.

^ Back to Top ^