🇨🇿 Czechia 1-4 (1-0 OT) Finland 🇫🇮
World Championship Final, Game 2
Håkons Hall, Lillehammer 🇳🇴
Sunday, 16 May 1999

The Czech Republic added the World Ice Hockey Championship to its Olympic title on Sunday with a 1-0 overtime victory over Finland.

Jan Hlaváč ended a pulsating afternoon of hockey when he raced into the Finnish zone and backhanded the puck past Miikka Kiprusoff at 16:32 of overtime, triggering a wild stampede off the Czech bench.

After winning the first match of the two game final on Saturday, 3-1, the Czech Republic needed only a tie from Game 2 to add the world championship to the Olympic title it won last year in Nagano. But the inspired Finns won the game, 4-1, to force the deciding 20-minute overtime session.

Since parting company with Slovakia, the Czechs have reached the medal podium five times in seven years at these championships, claiming their first major sports title as an independent nation with a victory over Canada in 1996.

Some of the Czech Republic’s best players weren’t available. Jaromír Jágr, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ star who won the National Hockey League’s scoring title and has been nominated for its most-valuable-player award this year, is still involved in the NHL playoffs. So is Dominik Hašek, the Buffalo Sabres’ goalie who led the Czechs to Gold in Nagano and is also a nominee for the league’s MVP award, called the Hart Trophy. Still, their countrymen were strong enough to win.

While there are five NHL players on the 23-man Czech Republic roster — members of teams already eliminated from the Stanley Cup chase — the Olympic champion has relied heavily on players from its own national league.

“This is a golden age for ice hockey in the Czech Republic,” said Ivan Hlinka, the Czech Republic coach and a member of the great Czechoslovakian teams of the 1970s. “It reminds me of 1972, ’76 and ’77, when we won Gold medals.”

Canada, with 23 NHL players, and the United States, with 17, both failed to win medals.

In Hašek’s absence, the Czechs have received solid netminding from Roman Čechmánek and Milan Hnilička. Hlinka has proven himself an extremely shrewd coach and motivator.

One of the most impressive parts of the Czechs’ performance has been their ability to produce big games when they matter most, particularly against Canada, whose previously undisputed status as hockey’s dominant power they are managing to successfully challenge.

Canada has not won a medal at a major competition since taking the Gold at the 1997 World Championships. This year, the Canadians returned home empty-handed after losing 3-2 to Sweden in the Bronze medal game Saturday.

Many of Canada’s most recent international setbacks have come at the hands of the Czechs. Canada was relegated to the Bronze medal game after losing a dramatic semifinal overtime shootout Thursday to the Czech Republic.

It was the second time in just over a year that the Czechs had dashed Canadian Gold medal hopes. They also triumphed over Canada in the semifinal round of the Nagano Olympics.

BOXSCORE
1st Period
01:41 – 🇫🇮 GOAL – Niemi (Sihvonen, Eloranta)
05:35 – 🇫🇮 GOAL – Lind (Kallio, Niemi)
06:48 – 🇫🇮 PEN – Tuomainen, interference
10:37 – 🇨🇿 PEN – Vykoukal, interference
13:45 – 🇫🇮 PEN – Jokinen, hooking
18:08 – 🇫🇮 PEN – Lydman, holding
19:55 – 🇫🇮 PEN – Timonen, unsportsmanlike conduct
19:55 – 🇨🇿 PEN – Procházka, unsportsmanlike conduct

2nd Period
21:43 – 🇨🇿 PEN – Výborný, elbowing
21:51 – 🇫🇮 PP GOAL – Tuomainen (Karalahti, Selänne)
22:11 – 🇨🇿 PEN – Sýkora, charging
28:27 – 🇨🇿 PEN – Procházka, elbowing
30:47 – 🇨🇿 GOAL – Ujčík (Procházka)
34:57 – 🇨🇿 PEN – Sýkora, slashing

3rd Period
46:52 – 🇫🇮 GOAL – Peltonen (Helminen, Eloranta)
50:07 – 🇨🇿 PEN – Špaček, interference
53:52 – 🇨🇿 PEN – Dvořák, high sticking

Overtime
76:32 – 🇨🇿 GOAL – Hlaváč (Šimíček)

GOALTENDERS
W: 🇨🇿 Hnilička (18-22)
L: 🇫🇮 Sulander (40-42)

SHOTS ON GOAL
🇨🇿 9+14+8+11 = 42
🇫🇮 3+7+8+4 = 22

ROSTERS
🇨🇿 Goaltenders: Roman Čechmánek, Milan Hnilička. Defence: Ladislav Benýšek, František Kaberle, Pavel Kubina, František Kučera, Libor Procházka, Jaroslav Špaček, Jiří Vykoukal. Forwards: Jan Čaloun, Radek Dvořák, Jan Hlaváč, Tomáš Kucharčík, Roman Meluzín, David Moravec, Pavel Patera, Martin Procházka, Martin Ručinský, Petr Sýkora, Roman Šimíček, Viktor Ujčík, Tomáš Vlasák, David Výborný.
🇫🇮 Goaltenders: Miikka Kiprusoff, Ari Sulander. Defence: Aki-Petteri Berg, Jere Karalahti, Marko Kiprusoff, Toni Lydman, Kari Martikainen, Antti-Jussi Niemi, Petteri Nummelin, Kimmo Timonen. Forwards: Mikko Eloranta, Raimo Helminen, Olli Jokinen, Tomi Kallio, Saku Koivu, Juha Lind, Ville Peltonen, Kimmo Rintanen, Teemu Selänne, Toni Sihvonen, Marko Tuomainen, Antti Törmänen.

Article Credit: The New York Times
Photo Credit: MTV.fi – IIHF – HHOF – IOC