Vaclav Prospal

Martin Rucinsky made sure the Czech Republic wouldn't need overtime or a shootout to win the world hockey championship. Rucinsky set up Vaclav Prospal's first-period goal, and scored one of his own in the third as the Czech Republic denied Canada its third straight title and won the world championship, 3-0, Sunday. "Scoring a goal in a world championship final is already fantastic, but winning is even better," Prospal said. "Canada was tough, but we were better."

Jocelyn Thibault stopped 28 shots, and Alexei Zhamnov and Mark Bell scored to lift the Chicago Blackhawks over the Detroit Red Wings, 2-0, Monday night at Detroit. Thibault's second shutout this season and 23rd of his career helped Chicago extend its unbeaten streak at Joe Louis Arena to seven games (5-0-2). The loss ended Detroit goalie Manny Legace's unbeaten streak at 19 (17-0-2). The shutout was the second in a row for the Red Wings. * Tampa Bay 4, Montreal 3--Martin St.

Dwayne Roloson proved his worth to the Minnesota Wild with another impressive victory. Roloson, who signed a three-year contract extension Tuesday worth about $2 million per season, made 22 saves Friday for his career-high 19th victory as the Minnesota Wild defeated the Nashville Predators, 3-1, at St. Paul, Minn. Roloson had his shutout bid ended by Scott Walker midway through the third period. Each team is chasing its franchise's first playoff berth.

Ilya Kovalchuk scored four goals and Russia stormed into the Olympic men's hockey quarterfinals with a dominating 9-2 victory over Latvia on Sunday. After dropping the opener to Slovakia, 5-3, Russia has won three straight by a combined score of 15-2. "I don't think we've played our best hockey yet," Kovalchuk said.

For 57 minutes, the Philadelphia Flyers played like they didn't care if they matched a franchise-record losing streak. But three goals in the final 3:06 of regulation gave the struggling Flyers a 3-3 tie Saturday with the New York Islanders at Philadelphia. Eric Lindros' 37th goal with 50 seconds left capped the rally and allowed the Flyers to stop a five-game losing streak. "I just tried to stuff it in," Lindros said of the tying goal. "I saw it pop out and saw it was still alive in the crease.

By mid-morning Sunday, King Coach Andy Murray had already watched the videotape of Saturday night's 1-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning twice. "Territorially and chance-wise," he said of the defeat that dropped the struggling Kings to 1-3-1 overall and 0-2-1 at Staples Center, "we dominated the game, probably more than any other game this year. "But we just did not finish our chances. ... We need to score goals with the opportunities we're getting.

Jaromir Jagr, the NHL's leading scorer, injured his right hamstring Monday night in the Pittsburgh Penguins' 2-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Tampa, Fla., and will be sidelined indefinitely. Jagr, held scoreless for a season-high third consecutive game, heard his hamstring "crack" as he became tangled with the Lightning's Todd Warriner near the offensive blue line with 12 seconds left in the second period. Jagr said he was told the injury can sideline a player for as long as a month.

The puck hadn't even been dropped for this weekend's back-to-back games between local rivals, and already there was discussion of which team was more desperate -- the Mighty Ducks or the Kings. The Ducks, nine points behind the Kings for eighth place in the Western Conference, need to do well against the Kings today and Sunday to stoke the fire of playoff possibilities. Underachieving and underwhelming so far, the Ducks could see their playoff hopes fade to black with poor showings.