BRATISLAVA – The first season behind the Tre Kronor bench ended with a tough defeat to archrival Finland and the silver medal. But Pär Mårts wants more and he’s on the right path.

The Sweden-Finland final was the best that could happen for the 2012 IIHF World Championship organizers, but not many people outside of Finland would have bet that the Finns, with their reputation of being the eternal bridesmaids, would beat eight-time world champion Sweden.

And not even the most optimistic Finn could have imagined doing it in such a fashion, with a five-goal margin.

The Finns had to wait 16 years for their second word title and in the end they saw these numbers on the scoreboard: 1-6, numbers that stunned Mårts and left the 58-year-old Swedish coach holding the bridesmaid’s bouquet.

As a head coach he was behind the bench of the U20 national team four times and won four medals. Three silvers (1992, 2008, 2009) and one bronze (2010), but never a golden one.

“I don’t know how many silver medals I’ve won, but it’s too many,” a disappointed Mårts said after the gold medal game in Bratislava. “I can’t see what I should have done in another way right now, but you have to learn from losses.”

“It’s sad and it should be sad because we didn’t win. We have to learn winning. But now we have to be content with the silver medal.”

And then, he eventually found some reasons why his team was outplayed to such an extent in the final stage of the game, after two tightly-contested periods.

“The Finns were the better team. They played much better in the defence and had more power. Nobody on the Swedish team played his best game,” he said. “Some young guys tried to do what they couldn’t do. We didn’t have the mental strength to win this game.”

It was his answer to the question why Finland was so much better scorewise. And why Finland became the first team ever to score five goals in a period in a World Championship gold medal game, and the second (after Canada in 1930) to score six goals in total.

Mårts had good reasons to be disappointed. The Swedes were one of the best teams in the group stages, and in the semis they were the only team of the event to defeat the fan-favourite Czech Republic and end the Czechs’ winning streak.

Mårts has to get over another gold medal loss and regroup for another year. Although the way the gold medal game ended his team bordered on embarrassment for the successful Swedes, there were many positives for Tre Kronor in this event, too.

Think of rags-to-riches goalkeeper Viktor Fasth, who just conceded six goals in six games before the final clash with Finland, where this figure doubled.

Or of 20-year-old wunderkind Magnus Pääjärvi, although among youngsters he landed in the shadow of Mikael Granlund after the Finn’s lacrosse-like goal in the semi-final game against Russia.

Or Patrik Berglund, who led his team in scoring at age 22 – only Finland’s Jarkko Immonen had more goals and points.

Or the many Swedish NHL players who cross the ocean to make Sweden the number-one producer of European talent in North America.

The Finnish team and its individuals were a notch ahead on Sunday, but the future is bright for Mårts’s team and there will be a new chance to win gold another year.

The years to come are exciting for both of the Northern European nations. As co-host of the 2012 and 2013 Worlds Sweden will play seven preliminary-round games and an eventual quarter-final in Stockholm’s Globen Arena next year before moving to Helsinki for eventual semi-final and medal games.

In 2013 Stockholm will be the main venue hosting the gold medal game and the Swedes even consider using the Stockholmsarenan, a 30,000-seat multi-purpose football stadium with a retractable roof that is being built behind the Globen Arena.

“Overall I’m proud that my team did a pretty good tournament,” Mårts said. “Not the best, but it’s a start for something better.”

MARTIN MERK

BRATISLAVA – The Slovak Ice Hockey Federation announced on Wednesday that Glen Hanlon will not return as the national team head coach. The announcement comes just days after the end of the 2011 World Championship, in which the host Slovak team won just two games and finished out of the playoff round.

Hanlon was the first foreign coach on the Slovak national team, and his departure comes way ahead of the end of his coaching contract, which was to run until the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi. The federation’s executive committee will most likely name a successor after the Slovak Ice Hockey Association’s congress on June 10.

Hanlon was hired after the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver where Slovakia finished fourth, led by coach Jan Filc, who also led the national team to the historic 2002 World Championship title.

His first major assignment was the 2010 World Championship in Germany where Slovakia finished 12th. The final placement now recently in Bratislava was 10th, which means that Slovakia for the first time has slipped to 10th position in the IIHF World Ranking.

The top nine countries in the IIHF World Ranking will automatically qualify to the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.

ZURICH – The two groups for the 2012 IIHF World Championship in Helsinki, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden (May 4-20, 2012) have been announced by the IIHF.

It will be the first time in modern history that the men’s IIHF World Championship will be co-hosted by two countries.

The Helsinki venue will be the 13,349-seat Hartwall Areena, while the games in Stockholm will be played at the 13,850-seat Globe Ericsson Arena.

This is the first time since 1997 that the men’s IIHF World Championship will be played with two preliminary round groups. The new format will see the top four teams in each group advance to the quarter-finals. The last-placed teams in each group (positions 8) will be relegated to Division I Group A.

Note: The quarter-finals will be played within the respective groups as opposed to the cross-over system.

Two quarter-finals will be played in Helsinki and two in Stockholm (May 17). Both semi-finals (May 19), Bronze medal and Gold medal games (May 20) will be played in Helsinki.

The schedule for the 76th IIHF World Championship will be announced soon.

The group composition is determined by the 2011 IIHF World Ranking. As the order of the World Ranking would have had the two hosting countries Finland (ranked 2) and Sweden (ranked 3) seeded into the same group, the following provision in the IIHF Sport Regulations was applied to have Finland and Sweden separated:

If a championship pool consists of two groups to take place in two countries whose teams are seeded into the same group, the hosting country team in the lower position will switch its position with the team in the same position of the other group.

Go to www.IIHF.com for more information and to www.iihfworlds2012.com for ticket information and event specific information.

HELSINKI – It was like a high school reunion gone wild. Or, like going to see a remake of everybody’s movie and still loving it, with the new cast and all.

Just like in 1995, an estimated 100,000 people gathered in downtown Helsinki to welcome the 2011 World Champions home, and to celebrate Finland’s win over Sweden, just like in 1995. Even if none of the players on the team were the same – the first time Finland’s World Championship team didn’t include any 1995 world champions – some of the artists were the same. No Leningrad Cowboys, though.

And then they all sang “Den Glider In”, the 1995 Stockholm tournament’s official tournament song that the Finns hijacked to be their own after the first World Championship.

In the 16 years between the gold medals, Finland had been close a few times, having played in the final four times, but had come short every time. The nation was hungry for a new gold, especially since Finland had just three medals in the last nine tournaments, and none in Jukka Jalonen’s first two as head coach. Of course, the Olympic bronze helped a little.

In a tournament in which big nations stumbled along the way, the Finnish national team wasn’t completely immune to trouble. Against Latvia, Russia, and Germany, they had to take the longest route, the shootout, to get the points, turning their game against Slovakia into a must-win game. They won it 2-1.

On the other hand, Russia lost to Germany, Sweden to Norway, Slovakia to almost everybody, paving the way for a Finland – Norway quarterfinal, which was a dream come true to the Finns.

For once, Finns got the bounces to go their way. Not only when they got to meet Norway, but also in their must-win game against Slovakia. And their game against Germany when Tuomo Ruutu scored tied the game with less than six minutes remaining in the regulation time with a shot that hit the side of the net, bounced up, hit Dennis Endras’s pants and went in.

“The puck bounced our way, but we also deserved our luck. I can say that without a doubt, we weren’t the worse team in any of our games,” Tuomo Ruutu told IIHF.com after the final.

“Sometimes when you get scored on, the bench goes all quiet and energy disappears, but for us, it was the opposite. We got louder and gave each other energy. And when we had the lead, we kept on playing our game, and weren’t afraid to do what we wanted to do,” he added.

With no margin of error, preparation become key, and this time Finland had done their homework. The coaching staff was prepared for any eventuality to the point that when Russia scored two goals in the span of 11 seconds in the teams’ first game in the tournament, they didn’t hesitate to pull goaltender Petri Vehanen just 4:37 into the game.

After the game, Jalonen said that he had told Vehanen in advance that he would get pulled, if the team didn’t give him support so that he wouldn’t have to waste any energy before the quarter-final, their next game.

Vehanen responded, and got scored on only twice in Finland’s three playoff games as Finland outscored their opponents 13-2.

But the preparation extended beyond line changes and scouting of opponents. Jalonen invited players to hist first camp weeks before the tournament, and all in all, seven of the World Championship team players were already on the roster on April 1 when Finland played an exhibition game against Slovakia. They all made the journey from the first camp, via exhibition games, to the World Championship, to the stage on the Helsinki Market Square, across the street from the Presidential Palace.

One of them was Jarkko Immonen, who was tournament leading scorer with nine goals and 12 points in nine games. His nine goals was also tournament-best.

“The exhibition games gave him a chance to get into an even better shape, and gain some confidence. He hadn’t been as good as we had expected in the games during the season, but in this tournament he was amazing,” said Jalonen.

Immonen played on line with his Ak Bars Kazan teammate Janne Pesonen, and Mikael Granlund.

Yes, Mikael Granlund. The man with the move that stunned the world. A month ago, the 19-year-old forward celebrated the SM-liiga championship with HIFK Helsinki, then he joined the World Championship team on the eve of the tournament.

“He moves better than last year, he’s grown physically, he’s better at battling for the puck, and his confidence is even better this year. He’s become a man. Mikael’s an exceptional player in that he always makes right decisions with the puck, and never fails,” Jalonen told IIHF.com during the tournament.

“Once we got Granlund on the same line with Immonen, it just clicked. Immonen is a pure goal scorer, as we all know, and Granlund is a playmaker. Anybody with a high-quality shot will surely score a lot of goals playing with Granlund, regardless of the league or the level of play,” Jalonen said.

This time, too, Finland had what all champion teams need. Depth. Behind Immonen and Granlund, second in team scoring with nine points in nine games, Finland had team captain Mikko Koivu (eight points) and Ruutu (six goals in nine games).

Jalonen decided to spread the ice time evenly with the defencemen, using four pairings throughout the tournament, to make sure that his defencemen would have the energy to battle with the top players all the way to the end.

And of course, the team was the biggest star of the team.

"I felt that we were a tight group and we did everything together as a team, on the ice and off it. This team is full of fantastic guys," said Ruutu.

“I was 12 years old when Finland won its first World Championship, and I remember how they played “Den Glider In” at school the next day. It’s quite a journey to get from there to here,” he told IIHF.com, with the championship trophy under his arm.

RISTO PAKARINEN


President Tarja Halonen gave the team the Key-Flag, a symbol of the Association for Finnish Work as a recognition of a job well done. Photo: Jukka Rautio / HHOF-IIHF Images

ZURICH – Finnish broadcaster YLE had one of its best days ever last Sunday. The ratings peaked at 2.6 million viewers when Finland poured in five goals during the third period against rival Sweden. That’s half of Finland’s population.

Also the numbers for Swedish sender TV3 were excellent as an average of 1,654,000 viewers tuned in to watch what turned out to be a disappointing 6-1 loss to the archrival. The Swedish numbers peaked at 2,166,000 viewers.

YLE’s average number was almost identical with the Swedish peak – 2.1 million.

Vesa Pihanurmi, Director of YLE’s program planning, says that the 2011 IIHF World Championship gold medal game outdrew all other broadcasts so far in 2011.

“Very few broadcasts in Finland manage to top the two million rating,” said Pihanurmi. “Only the ceremony from the national day of independence from the castle can sometimes get these numbers.”

Last time Finland won gold (1995) YLE recorded 2.2 million viewers. The 2011 IIHF World Championship was shown in 114 countries or territories and reached approximately 700 million cumulated TV viewers.

The 2011 tournament drew 406,807 spectators in Bratislava and Kosice, which is the 8th-highest attendance number in the history of the event. It is an excellent number for a tournament where the capacity of the main venue was just under 10,000 seats.

The record is 552,097 from 2004 (Prague & Ostrava, Czech Republic) – number that the Finns and Swedes hope to beat when they co-host the 2012 IIHF World Championship in Helsinki and Stockholm.

BRATISLAVA – Russia remains first in the 2011 IIHF World Ranking, but Finland follows just 20 points behind after winning the 2011 Worlds. The groups for 2012 will be determined shortly.

The Finns move up from fourth to second place. Sweden remains third with as many points as Finland, but Finland is ahead because the result of the most recent tournament serves as a tie-breaker in the World Ranking.

Olympic champion Canada drops down from second to fourth place after being ousted in the World Championship quarter-finals two years in a row.

The Czech Republic stays in fifth place despite winning the bronze medals in Bratislava.

The United States remain in sixth and Switzerland in seventh position in the 2011 IIHF World Ranking.

Germany and Norway – the two surprising quarter-finalists at this year’s World Championship – move up. Germany gains one place and is now eighth while Norway moves up two spots and follows in ninth place.

This area is the borderline for a bye to the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. The top nine teams of the IIHF World Ranking in one year, after the 2012 IIHF World Championship, will be qualified automatically for the Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Teams ranked tenth and worse in one year will have to battle for the remaining three spots in the 12-team Olympic men’s ice hockey tournament through qualification events.

Slovakia loses two places after finishing in a disappointing tenth place on home ice in Bratislava and is now tenth in the World Ranking as well. Belarus drops down one spot and is eleventh, followed by Latvia, Denmark, France and Austria.

Among Division I nations Great Britain made the biggest step forward. The British won Division I silver in April and had their best placement since 2001. They moved up two places and are now 21st.

The IIHF World Ranking includes the 48 of the IIHF’s 70 member nations that have participated in the IIHF World Championship Program in the last four years. It is based on the performances of the men’s national teams in the last four IIHF World Championships (2008-2011) and the last Olympic Winter Games (2010) with higher weighting on the more recent tournaments.

2011 IIHF Men’s World Ranking
2011 IIHF Women’s World Ranking

Groups for 2012 to be determined shortly

The two groups of eight teams for the 2012 IIHF World Championship in Helsinki (Finland) and Stockholm (Sweden), along with the schedule, will be determined shortly upon consultation with the involved parties and participants.

Due to logistical and scheduling reasons, the composition of the two groups may not necessarily follow the predetermined order from the 2011 IIHF World Ranking.

MARTIN MERK

BRATISLAVA – It is a great day in Finnish hockey history. In the latest chapter of hockey’s classic Nordic rivalry, Finland demolished Sweden 6-1 in the gold medal game of the 2011 IIHF World Championship. Petteri Nokelainen scored the first of five third-period Finnish goals, and it stood up as the winner.

Sweden – Finland 1-6 (0-0, 1-1, 0-5) Game Sheet Photos

Tournament scoring leader Jarkko Immonen (9-3-12), Niko Kapanen, Janne Pesonen, Mika Pyörälä, and Antti Pihlström also tallied for Finland. Magnus Pääjärvi scored for Sweden.

"This is the highlight of my career," said Finland's Sami Lepistö. "Of course, the Olympic bronze last year was big, but this is the World Championship."

In a duel of 2011's top two goalies statistically, Finland's Petri Vehanen got the best of tournament MVP Viktor Fasth as Sweden outshot the Finns 33-32.

The 16-year wait for Finnish fans is finally over. Finland’s one and only previous World Championship gold came in 1995 in Stockholm with a 4-1 final win over Sweden, as the Finnish fans celebrated to the strains of the bouncy tournament theme song, “Den Glider In.”

"It's easy to say now, but I knew after the semifinal win [over Russia] that we'd win the gold," said Tuomo Ruutu of Finland's 2011 dream come true. "We didn't change a thing. We kept on playing our own game."

Jukka Jalonen got his first World Championship medal ever as head coach of the Finnish Lions, and it was the colour he was looking for.

"We had a great tournament," said Jalonen. "It’s an honour to win gold. We won many one-goal games here. This says a lot about the character of the team."

Pär Mårts, who coached Sweden to World U20 silver in 2008 and 2009, came away with second place again in his head coaching debut at the Worlds.

"The Finns were the better team," Mårts admitted. "They played much better on defence and had more power. Nobody on the Swedish team played his best game. I’m proud that my team had a pretty good tournament. Not the best, but it’s a start for something better."

This night, the attendance of 9,166 at Orange Arena was evenly split among Finnish and Swedish fans, and their competing chants of "Suomi!"and "Sverige!" created a great atmosphere.

The Finns, showing the mental toughness they've shown all tournament long, didn't crumble under adversity in the biggest game of the year. They delivered the most emphatic big-game win ever for a squad sporting Suomi sweaters.

After a tense, scoreless first period, Sweden got the first goal at 7:20 of the second when Pääjärvi unleashed a lightning wrister from the left faceoff circle that beat Vehanen high on the glove side.

Nokelainen took a boarding call on Oliver Ekman-Larsson on the forecheck at 14:25, and Sweden went to the power play. The Swedes came close to grabbing a two-goal lead when Patrik Berglund tipped Pääjärvi’s slap-pass off the post.

Finnish wunderkind Mikael Granlund drew a penalty late in the middle frame as he tried to dipsy-doodle through David Petrasek, who hooked him. And with seven seconds left before the buzzer, the Finns tied it on Immonen’s tournament-leading ninth goal.

A prone Mikko Koivu kicked the puck back up the left boards to Janne Pesonen, who got it to Immonen, and he stepped in from the left point and hammered it high past Fasth’s glove.

It was a critical moment. The Finns had seized the momentum heading to the third. "If they didn’t get that goal, it’s a different game," said a regretful Mattias Tedenby.

The Finns just kept rolling. At 2:35 of the final stanza, Nokelainen broke in over the Swedish blueline alongside Pihlström, who sent him a neat pass on the left side, and he roofed it impeccably past Fasth's stick.

At 3:21, the Finns went up 3-1 when Kapanen grabbed a loose puck to Fasth's left after a partially blocked centering pass from Juhamatti Aaltonen and banged it in.

Halfway through the third, the Swedes called a timeout to regroup. But they couldn't solve Finland's tenacious checking.

The Finns got a ton of late insurance goals. First, there was a marker from Pesonen with 3:41 left, as he raced in to collect a Granlund shoot-in off the end boards and put a backhand deke past Fasth to make it 4-1. Pyörälä completely doused hopes of a Swedish rally when he potted another one from the right faceoff circle just 35 seconds later.

"I don't know what happened to the Swedes, but they didn't have a chance, did they?" said Lepistö.

Pihlström put the icing on the cake with a beautiful high shot with 55 seconds left. 6-1. Good night, Sweden.

"I’m just really disappointed we didn’t come up with a better third period when it mattered the most," said Swedish captain Rickard Wallin.

"They scored five goals in one period, and that’s not supposed to happen to us," said Pääjärvi.

The Finnish celebration was on, not only in the arena, but from Helsinki to Rovaniemi. Accepting their gold medals from IIHF President René Fasel, the Finnish players saluted their fans, sang along lustily to their national anthem, and hoisted the trophy as if they couldn't believe their time had finally come.

It is a refreshing pace of change for Finland, which had grown accustomed to heartbreaking losses to Sweden. Two recent examples include Sweden’s rallying from a 5-1 deficit to down Finland 6-5 in the 2003 World Championship quarter-finals in Helsinki, and Tre Kronor’s 3-2 victory in the 2006 Olympic gold medal game on Nicklas Lidström’s early third-period goal.

The Finns can now put behind them a sad legacy of losing in the finals under the IIHF's playoff system (1992, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2007). They are the well-deserving champions of the world.

"This team is full of fantastic guys," said Ruutu. "I felt that we were a tight group and we did everything together as a team, on the ice and off it."

Sweden’s last medal came in 2010 with a bronze medal victory over the host Germans. Finland’s previous one also came at Sweden’s expense, a bronze in Canada 2008.

Interestingly, 2011 marks the first year that Finland’s national team has not included at least one member of the squad that won gold in Sweden in 1995.

The gold medal victory moves Finland up from fifth place to second in the IIHF World Ranking.

The two Nordic finalists are also the co-hosts of the IIHF World Championship in 2012 and 2013. Finland hopes to be defending its title when the next gold medal game is played in Helsinki on May 20, 2012.

LUCAS AYKROYD

BRATISLAVA – Viktor Fasth (SWE) was named tournament MVP of the 2011 IIHF World Championship.

The Tournament Directorate also named its stars as follows:

Best Goalie: Viktor Fasth (SWE)
Best Defenceman: Alex Pietrangelo (CAN)
Best Forward: Jaromir Jagr (CZE)

The media All-Star Team was also announced tonight:

Goal: Viktor Fasth (SWE)
Defence: David Petrasek (SWE), Marek Zidlicky (CZE)
Forward: Patrik Berglund (SWE), Jarkko Immonen (FIN), Jaromir Jagr (CZE)

BRATISLAVA – In one of the most entertaining bronze medal games of all time, the Czech Republic claimed third place with a 7-4 win over Russia this afternoon at Orange Arena. Roman Cervenka led the way with three goals and an assist in a game that featured all-out offence and wildly entertaining hockey. The eleven total goals was the most ever at World Championship and Olympic play.

Czech Republic-Russia 7-4 (2-3, 3-1, 2-0) Game Sheet Photos

Twice Russia had the lead but couldn't hold it during a second period in which the Czechs scored three times. Ilya Kovalchuk had two goals for the losers. Petr Prucha added two goals and an assist for the Czechs. Noticeably absent from the Russians' effort was Alexander Ovechkin, who made several giveaways and ended the tournament with zero points in five games.

"It’s a medal," boasted Jakub Voracek. "After what we did in the first two rounds, we were expecting gold, like everybody else. But it feels a lot better than after the semi-finals, and I’m very happy to get this bronze."

"We made way too many mistakes," offered Russia's Fyodor Tyutin, "more mistakes than they did. We feel awful. It’s not where we wanted to be."

It was a game that looked more like an all-star game than medal game. Goals aplenty, little defence, no trap coaching, goalies hung out to dry. That’s old-time hockey! Both teams were in synch and were happy to offer the noisy and happy fans this pre-gold-medal treat of a game.

""This was a great group of guys," said Jaromir Jagr. "Last year, we showed that we can win even if we don't have our best players. This year, the NHL players came, too, and the team attitude was still there. Too bad we played against a Swedish team that just didn't make any mistakes."

In what might well have been the most entertaining period of bronze medal hockey in decades, the teams came out guns a-blazin’ from the drop of the puck, clearly impressed by the sheen of bronze after being eliminated from gold-medal contention. They combined for five goals in the first 20 minutes, Russia getting three, all exciting plays off the rush. A packed Orange Arena with half the fans shouting, “Rossiya!” and the other, “Cesky!” only added to the atmosphere.

The first goal came at 3:33 on a strange play, to say the least. Cervenka was the puck carrier, and with him on the play was Tomas Plekanec. The only defenceman back was Vitali Atyushov, but Fyodor Tyutin was hustling back to help out. Cervenka made the pass, but Atyushov deftly got his stick on the puck. At the same moment, though, Tyutin dove back trying to intercept the same pass. His body carried the puck into the goal past a surprised Konstantin Barulin.

The middle part of the period featured three great goals in 57 seconds. The Russians tied the game on a long shot by Ilya Kovalchuk who fired the puck between the legs of defenceman Petr Caslava and just under the blocker of Ondrej Pavelec. The goal came after Jaromir Jagr created several outstanding chances for the Czechs before heading off on a line change, exhausted.

Just 15 seconds later, the Russians went ahead with an identical shot. This time it was Dmitri Kulikov, from the right, who fired it to the far side, just under Pavelec’s blocker.

Not to be outdone, though, the Czechs scored the best goal of the five on a perfect, three-way passing play. Petr Prucha passed the puck to Jan Marek at his blueline and headed up ice. Marek fed it to Tomas Rolinek who moved it quickly back to Prucha, now in the slot. His high shot found the back of the net.

The Russians went ahead again at 18:53 when Kovalchuk snagged a loose puck in the slot and roofed a shot over a sprawling Pavelec.

If the first period was exciting, the second offered almost as many goals plus a bonus package of craziness and a bit of rough stuff. The Czechs tied the game at 2:11 off a giveaway at the Russian blueline, Prucha ripping a high shot past Barulin.

This was the first of three goals in a row for the Czechs that changed the game once and for all. The next goal came when Atyushov was caught flat-footed at the Czech blueline on a turnover in front of the goal. He raced back to get to the puck before Cervenka, diving and trying to swat the puck back to his goalie. It was a poor choice, and Cervenka walked in alone, the puck bouncing in after Barulin tried an unsuccessful pokecheck.

Finally, Plekanec wound up for a slapshot at the top of the circle, and while everyone watched him, Cervenka had hit stick on the ice off to the side and re-directed the hard pass.

Vladimir Tarasenko brought the Russians to within one on a rebound that went in out and so quickly it needed video review to confirm the goal. But the period also featured the first penalties of the game, two of which for roughing after Maxim Afinogenov tried to start a fight with Patrik Elias.

If that weren’t enough, the game was delayed halfway through after Rachunek rode Yevgeni Artyukhin into the boards at the penalty bench. The glass exploded upon impact and had to be replaced, much to the delight of the fans who were seeing one great game.

The Czechs got a bit of insurance at 6:30 of the third period when Jan Marek snapped a hard shot from the slot off an odd-man rush that had been nicely broken up by Dmitri Kulikov.

Plekanec finished the scoring with an empty-net goal.

"I'm really happy," said Pavelec. "There was a lot of pressure because we won last year, and a lot of people doubted if I could play at this level. But we got a medal, and it's a great feeling."

"It wasn’t an easy game," said Marek Zidlicky of the Czech Republic. "You know, we just lost one game in the tournament. It was a tough thing for us, but we are so happy that we got the bronze. It was just one bad game in the semi-final, but that’s hockey. We’re so happy right now."

ANDREW PODNIEKS

BRATISLAVA – Over 400 e-mails reached us in the last few days about the Slovak hockey trivia with many right answers.

These are the lucky winners who will receive the 2011 IIHF Media Guide & Record Book on DVD in the next few weeks:

Jeff Clark from Whitby, Ontario, Canada
Peter Gemeran from Bratislava, Slovakia
Lorna Koskela from Turku, Finland
Damir Dzhafarov from Lafayette, Indiana, United States
Martin Krivička from Bratislava, Slovakia

And here are the correct answers:

1) In which year did Slovakia win its first IIHF World Championship gold medal?
2002

2) Who scored the 2-1 shootout winner for Slovakia versus Russia at the 2010 Olympics?
Pavol Demitra

3) In which two previous years did Bratislava host IIHF World Championship games?
1959 and 1992

4) Which top Slovak player made the Stanley Cup finals in 2008, 2009, and 2010?
Marian Hossa

5) Which Slovak goalie posted a 1-0 shutout versus Canada at the 1976 Canada Cup?
Vladimir Dzurilla

6) After Peter Stastny, who is the second-highest scoring Slovak in NHL history?
Peter Bondra (892 points)

7) What is the name of the official 2011 IIHF World Championship mascot?
Goooly

8) Which country did Slovakia beat for bronze at the 2003 IIHF World Championship?
Czech Republic

9) Who was the only Slovak referee to officiate at the 2010 Olympics?
Peter Orszag

10) Which Slovak Extraliga club won its third straight national title this year?
HC Kosice