Czech Republic are the new champions, having defeated Russia in the final. Russians clearly didn't want the third gold medal in a row quite bad enough. Though Vokoun was brilliant throughout the game, the primary reason Russians lost the game was their inability to solve the Czech trap; they insisted on trying to stickhandle through Czechs' four man defensive line all night. Like Don Cherry always says: just shoot the puck in!
Russia didn't receive any help from the referees, either. After a game where practically nothing was called the Slovakian-Finnish refereeing team made the most shocking penalty call of the tournament halfway through the third period. Alexei Emelin delivered a clean hip check on Jaromir Jagr, but the refs chose to call it clipping. Emelin was ejected from the game, and Team Russia, desperately trying to even the score in the third, went on penalty kill for five minutes. Of course, major penalties called on clean hits on Jagr are nothing new in international hockey. It's a contact sport, Jaromir; keep your head up, and wear a real helmet.
All that said, refereeing didn't cost Russians the game, they lost it all by themselves.
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In the bronze medal game the Swedes, unfortunately, defeated the German hosts. Bengt-Åke Gustafsson's tenure as the head coach of Team Sweden ended with a medal, though not of the color Sweden was looking for. True to his style, Bengt-Åke ended his last game with a gigantic "fuck you" to the host country, calling a time-out with one second remaining.
Ladies and gentlemen, Bengt-Åke Gustaffson.
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And finally, here are the final rankings:
Gold Czech Republic
Silver Russia
Bronze Sweden
4 Germany
5 Switzerland
6 Finland
7 Canada
8 Denmark
9 Norway
10 Belarus
11 Latvia
12 Slovakia
13 USA
14 France
15 Italy
16 Kazakhstan
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