NAGANO, Japan -- They joyfully waved red, white and blue flags in Big Hat arena today, celebrating their country's gold medal-winning performance in men's hockey at the Nagano Games.
But they weren't Americans or Russians. They were Czechs. And they were ready to vote for Dominik Hasek for president.
Hasek shut down Russia, 1-0, to win the first hockey gold medal in Czech history, completing a remarkable tournament in which he allowed six goals in six games.
The Czechs, whose only loss came to Russia in a preliminary-round game, defeated Kazakhstan, bronze medalist Finland and pre-tournament favorites Canada and the United States en route to the gold.
In the first Olympic tournament featuring NHL stars, the Czechs were led by Hasek of the Buffalo Sabres and Jaromir Jagr of the Pittsburgh Penguins. But the Czechs had just 12 NHL players on its 23-man roster, fewer than any of the other six teams who received automatic berth in the final preliminary round.
Russia settled for the silver medal; Finland won the bronze by beating Canada yesterday.
The Czechs started applying heavy pressure midway through the third period, and it paid off when Petr Svoboda scored the first goal of the game at 10: 23.
Moments before, Josef Beranek had the best chance of the game, getting the puck off a rebound of his own slap shot. He was all alone in front of Russia goalie Mikhail Shtalenkov, with plenty of time to decide what to do.
Lacking an idea, Beranek tried a weak backhand and Shtalenkov made the easy save.
But persistence paid off for the Czechs. Directly off a faceoff in the left circle, Svoboda rifled a shot from the left point, just inside the blue line. The puck appeared to deflect off a defender's leg, which tipped it just enough to put it above Shtalenkov's glove and into the far upper corner of the net.
Just like in its semifinal game against Canada, the Czech Republic played well defensively and entered the third period with the game scoreless.
Pavel Bure had two decent chances on Hasek during the same shift in the first period, surprising Hasek with a long shot while being guarded just inside the blue line, and winding up for a big slap shot moments later that whacked hard off Hasek's stick, but was actually an easier save.
The Czechs had the first breakaway of the game early in the second period, when Jagr and Beranek broke into the Russian zone with only defenseman Darius Kasparaitis back.
