After all the heartbreak, Canada good with bronze
The Canadians hugged each other and happily celebrated an Olympic hockey medal that isn’t the color they prefer.
At a tournament where the NHL stars stayed away, the Canadians who played at the Pyeongchang Games were just ecstatic not to be going home empty-handed.
Andrew Ebbett, Chris Kelly and Derek Roy each scored in the first period, and Canada took the bronze medal by beating the Czech Republic 6-4 on Saturday.
“I’m super proud,” forward Rob Klinkhammer said with the bronze hanging around his neck. “I’m honored to have won a medal at the Olympics. I know it’s not what Canada was hoping for, and it’s not what we were hoping for ... I’m going to remember this for the rest of my life. I never thought I’d be an Olympian, let alone have a medal. I’m ecstatic right now.”
This was the third bronze for Canada to go along with nine gold medals for the country that created hockey and won the previous two men’s Olympic titles. The bronze boosted Canada’s medal haul to 29.
Ebbett and Kelly added a goal apiece in the third, and Wojtek Wolski also scored for Canada, which finished with bronze in 1968 and 1956. Kevin Poulin made 30 saves in his second straight start in place of the injured Ben Scrivens.
If not for the NHL choosing to sit out, Ebbett, who last played in the NHL in the 201415 season, likely wouldn’t have been at the games. He scored twice and plans to cherish his bronze.
“I can tell my kids and grandkids that I scored in the Olympic Games and got a bronze medal,” Ebbett said. “It’s pretty cool.”
Roman Cervenka scored twice in the final four minutes to make the finish more exciting. After a final flurry, the Czechs stood on the ice, propped on their sticks in disappointment at coming up short of their country’s first medal since winning bronze at the 2006 Turin Games.
“We started bad,” Cervenka said. “For us, it was key first period . ... And that was our problem.”
The gold medal match between Germany and the Olympic Athletes from Russia, played early Sunday in South Korea, ended too late for this edition.
Speedskating: The debut of the speedskating mass start races worked out well for the hosts, with South Korea’s Lee Seung-hoon unleashing a final sprint to beat Belgian inline skater Bart Swings in the men’s event.
Japan’s Nana Takagi blasted past opposition in the final straightaway to win the women’s gold from Kim Bo-reum of South Korea.
Cross-country skiing: Iivo Niskanen of Finland took gold in cross-country’s 50-kilometer mass start.
Niskanen beat Russian rival Alexander Bolshunov with a strong sprint in the 50-kilometer mass start to give Finland its first gold of the games.
“The first, but not the last,” Niskanen said. “Tomorrow is a new day. I (was) wanting to win my gold medal (over) this distance and it had been long years.”
Niskanen won the marathon event in 2 hours, 8 minutes, 22.1 seconds — more than 18 seconds ahead of Bolshunov.