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| Date | 15 May 2005 | |||||||||||||||
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| Arena | Wiener Stadthalle | |||||||||||||||
| City | Vienna | |||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 7,999 | |||||||||||||||
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The2005 IIHF World Championship final was an ice hockey match that took place on 15 May 2005 at theWiener Stadthalle in Vienna,Austria, to determine the winner of the2005 IIHF World Championship. The Czech Republic defeated Canada 3–0 to win its fifth championship.
The game marked the second time that Canada and the Czech Republic would meet in the World Championship finals. The previous time was in the1996 tournament, also in Vienna, Austria. In that game the Czech Republic defeated Canada by a score of 4–2 on 5 May 1996. The Czech Republic were finalists for the first time since2001, the end of their dominance of the late 1990s and early 2000s, where they won 4 World Championships in the span of 6 years (1996–2001). Canada, however, had a more recent hot streak and were clear favorites, as they were looking for their third consecutive title after winning in2003 and2004.
TheWiener Stadthalle inVienna was determined to host the final of the championship. Previously at the tournament, the venue hosted both semifinals, as well as the bronze medal match. In the final, the attendance was 7,999.
Václav Prospal opened the scoring for the Czech Republic at 4:13 minutes into the game, assisted byMartin Ručinský andJaromír Jágr. This ended up to be the game winning goal, the fastest in IIHF finals history.
A deadlock second period saw Canada go on thepowerplay twice and outshoot the Czechs 11–7. Czech goaltenderTomáš Vokoun displayed a dominant performance however, facing some of Canada's stars such asDany Heatly,Rick Nash andRyan Smyth. Vokoun, who entered the tournament in the shadow of the legendary Czech goalieDominik Hašek, ended with a stellar performance and ashutout in the final, the first time this was achieved in a single game final.
3:12 into the third period,Martin Ručinský received a fast saucer pass from Jágr, off ofPetr Čajánek, while rushing the offensive zone and fired awrist shot which beatMartin Brodeur low on the glove side. With less than a minute remaining in the match,Josef Vašíček scored an empty net goal, which brought the final score to 3–0 for the Czech republic.
The Czechs were overall more agile and had more speed, more than likely because of the2004–05 NHL lockout, which left 12 players of Canada's without a club team in close to a calendar year, while almost every member of the Czech roster was playing in theCzech Extraliga, or other European leagues.
| 15 May 2005 20:15 |  Czech Republic | 3–0 ( 1–0, 0–0, 2–0 ) |  Canada | Wiener Stadthalle,Vienna Attendance: 7,999 |
| Game reference | |||||||||||
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| Tomáš Vokoun | Goalies | Martin Brodeur | Referee: T. Andersson | ||||||||
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| 20 min | Penalties | 30 min | |||||||||
| 27 | Shots | 29 | |||||||||
