Czechs win dramatic world hockey gold in overtime

It's getting even harder to think of Canada as naturally the country to beat at the 2002 Winter Olympics hockey tournament, now that the defending Olympic champions from the Czech Republic have won their third straight world championship. But the Czechs were pushed to the limit by Finland in Sunday's gold-medal game at Hannover,Germany and needed a beautiful goal from David Moravec at 10:38 of overtime to cap a determined comeback and claim the title after a spirited contest. Martin Prochazka forced a turnover in the neutral zone and sped away with Moravec, who fought off a check, accepted the pass and tucked the puck under goal Pasi Nurminen, who was flailing across the goalmouth. Prochazka was also the first Czech to get on the scoresheet, potting one at 4:31 of the third period to restore hope and begin the comeback against the fast and scrappy Finns, who had opened up a 2-0lead on goals from Juha Lind and Juha Ylonen. Jiri Dopita tied it up with 5:55 left in the game to set the stage for an exciting overtime that saw neither team playing particularly cautiously in the extra time.