Thursday, February 21, 2002
Hasek ends Olympic career on sour note
By CHRIS STEVENSON -- SLAM! Sports
PROVO, Utah - Dominik Hasek had trouble sorting through the emotions after
his last Olympic game.
The goaltender for the Czech Republic allowed but one goal, but that was one
too many Wednesday as the defending gold medal champions were ousted 1-0 from
the Olympic tournament by a Russian team committed to defence.
"The disappointment is huge," said Hasek, who shut out the Russians by the
same score four years ago to win the gold in Nagano.
"To be honest, I am so disappointed. But I am so proud of the way we played.
Everybody on the team competed from beginning to end. I'm disappointed at one
end, but so proud of what we did for 60 minutes."
The Czechs outshot the Russians 41-26, but were turned back by Russian
goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin. The Czechs went 0-for-6 on the power play,
including a couple of 5-on-3's, one while the game was scoreless.
"Yeah, the power play let us down today for sure," said Czech forward Martin
Rucinsky. "We had a 5-on-3 for about two minutes and we didn't score. That
was a key situation in the game. We could have been up 1-0 and it might have
been a different game.
"I thought we were the better team for most of the game. We had a lot of
shots and we couldn't score. It happens. It's frustrating, but we have to
take it."
The Czechs tried to make some adjustments after the first period with the
decision to shoot high on Khabibulin, but the closest they came was hitting
the crossbar on a shot by Jiri Dopita.
Hasek said he won't be around for the next Olympic Games, but said he figured
he was closing out his Olympic career on a proud note and was gracious in
defeat.
"It was a great battle from beginning to end," he said. "Both teams had good
chances. We had even more chances...it was just a great battle. I think for
the fans, everybody appreciated the battle today."
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2002 Games Men's Hockey Coverage
