Martin Rucinsky created an early goal and scored another in the third period Sunday, leading the Czech Republic past Canada 3-0 for its first ice hockey World Championship title in four years.
It was the Czechs' fourth title in seven years and fifth since 1996.
Rucinsky's goal came at 3:14 in the third period, beating goalie Martin Brodeur with a slap shot to the glove side from the top of the left circle after a fast Czech rush into the Canadian end.
PHOTO: AFP
With his first world title, the 33-year-old Jaromir Jagr became the 15th player to win a Stanley Cup, Olympic and World Championship titles.
"It was a very tough game, but we always believed in ourselves," Jagr said. "It helped of course that we scored the opener, because then the Canadians had to attack.
"It was a very tactical game and our coach told us to remain calm, stay back and wait for our chances. I'm sure our fans have forgiven us now for not winning at home last year."
Vaclav Prospal gave the Czechs the lead, knocking a rebound past Brodeur at 4:13 in the opening period after Rucinsky had hit the post.
"Scoring a goal in a World Championship final is already fantastic, but winning is even better," Prospal said. "I don't know ... it's simply wonderful. Canada was tough tonight, but we were better."
Canada pulled Brodeur for an extra attacker in the last minute, but it was too late.
Instead, Josef Vasicek scored an empty-netter, sending the puck from outside the Czech crease into the open goal at 19:07.
Thousands of flag-waving Czech fans celebrated the victory at Stadthalle.
In a wide-open second period, Simon Gagne had two excellent scoring chances for Canada. But Radek Dvorak, the hero in the Czechs' overtime win over Sweden in the semifinals, had an even better one.
Tomas Vokoun, named the tournament's best goalie, earned the shutout.
Canada's Joe Thornton and Rick Nash, voted to the tournament's All-Star team, finished 1-2 in the scoring race, but went scoreless in the final.
"On any other given night we could have had them," Nash said. "We had our chances, but we didn't bury them. Vokoun played well. We had a couple of chances in our first couple of shifts. We had chances on the power play. But we ran into a hot goaltender."
It was the first time in the tournament that Canada failed to score a goal.
"We couldn't find the back of the net tonight," Thornton said. "It's disappointing. We wanted to win this so bad, but it didnt' work out.
"This was kind of our Stanley Cup this year," he said referring to the NHL labor impasse that cancelled the North American pro season. "We just came up short. The guys played their hearts out. That's what we wanted to for the last game."
Thornton led three Canadians atop the scoring list with 6 goals and 10 points for 16 points. Nash was the top goalscorer with 9 goals and also had 6 assists. Simon Gagne was third with 3 goals and 7 assists. All played nine games.
Russia 6, sweden 3
Earlier, Maxim Afinogenov scored two goals and Russia held on to beat Sweden 6-3 in the bronze-medal game.
It was only the third podium finish for Russia since 1992 and came after a 10th-place finish last year, one of the worst showings ever by a Soviet or Russian team in the worlds.
The loss snapped Sweden's streak of four straight podium finishes. In 2003 and 2004, Sweden lost to Canada in the final.
Afinogenov scored just 1:02 in and added a second goal at 3:58, both times assisted by Alexander Ovechkin.
Ronnie Sundin cut the score with a power-play goal midway through the first period but Alexei Kovalev restored Russia's two-goal lead at 15:24.
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