IIHF World Championship Update

Now I know all of you have been just DYING to find out what happens in the IIHF World Championships in Bratislava this year so I apologize for my lack of updates.

Earlier today, the Czech-Republic defeated Russia by the score of 7-4 in the Bronze Medal Game. This was the highest scoring affair for a Bronze Medal game in World Championships history. For Russia, NHL star Ilya Kovalchuk had 2 goals for the Russian squad while Petr Prucha had 2 goals for the Czechs and Tomas Plekanec added an empty netter for the Czech Republic. (Other goal scorers had names neither of us would recognize nor pronounce correctly). Alex Ovechkin was a bust for the Russian team. In the 6 games he played he didn't even register a point which is odd for the usually dominant Ovechkin. Fatigue may have been a factor having just gotten eliminated from playoff contention. Kovalchuk in the 9 games he played had 3 goals (2 of them today) and 5 assists. The Czech were led by Patrick Elias who played fantastic for them and was their leader as well. He had 4 goals and 5 assists in his 9 games. He even received praise from intimidating Hockey Agent Allan Walsh for his swell captaining. Ondrej Pavelec played goalie for the Czech team. He had 39 saves in the Bronze Medal winning game. The goalie for the Russian team is unidentifiable.

Later today will be the Gold Medal game between Finland and Sweden. I'm not well versed in either team but I know how to look the rosters up online.
Here are the NHL players on both teams:

Sweden:
Oliver Ekman Larsson (PHX)
Carl Gunnarsson (TOR)
Mattias Tedenby (NJD)
Patrik Berglund (STL)
Loui Eriksson (DAL)
Marcus Kruger (CHI)
Mikael Backlund (CGY)
Magnus Paajarvi (EDM)

Finland:
Anssi Salmela (NJD)
Mikko Koivu (MIN)
Jesse Joensuu (NYI)

Personally, I want Sweden to win because of Mattias Tedenby. But it'd be nice to see Mikko Koivu win the gold medal 17 years after his brother Saku Koivu won it for the Finns. Also, anything good done by the Koivu family is nice to see because of Saku's comeback from cancer so I really wouldn't mind either team winning.

Edit: Well it wasn't much of a game. Finland defeated Sweden 6-1. Wasn't too pretty for Sweden this afternoon. Magnus Paajarvi for the Swedes scored the first goal of the game but then allowed the next 6 goals. Mikko Koivu had 2 assists for Finland and Anssi Salmela had an assist as well. Besides for that I'm sure you don't care who else did anything.

In America this tournament doesn't seem like such a big deal. For us it seems like the N.I.T. Tournament for the Stanley Cup Finals. Not even all the players in the NHL from teams that didn't make it in the playoffs play in the tournament. In the European countries, however, this tournament is a major event. Mostly all the players from the European league represent their country and for them it means a lot.