Canada Beats Czech Republic to Win 2018 Olympic Men's Hockey Bronze Medal

Canada bounced back from a semifinal loss to Germany to score a 6-4 victory Saturday over the Czech Republic to win the 2018 Winter Olympics' bronze medal in men's ice hockey at the Gangneung Hockey Centre in South Korea.

Andrew Ebbett, Chris Kelly and Derek Roy scored first-period goals for the Canadians, who took a 3-1 lead and never trailed. Ebbett and Kelly scored again in the third period, while Wojtek Wolski also found the net for the bronze medalists.

Martin Ruzicka, Jan Kovar and Roman Cervenka, who scored twice in the third, picked up the Czechs' tallies.

Canada earned a men's hockey medal for the third straight Games, though it had won gold in Vancouver (2010) and Sochi (2014). The country would have been favored to finish atop the podium again if the NHL had released its players to participate in Pyeongchang.

As the Canada offense clicked on all cylinders in the opening period, goalie Kevin Poulin made 14 stops to keep the Czech Republic at bay.

Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun noticed a clear difference from Friday's semifinal:

Roy's goal with just over four minutes left in the period helped cap a strong tournament for the former Buffalo Sabres star. He racked up seven points (two goals and five assists) and showed much of the same playmaking ability he did during his NHL peak.

While he plays for Linkopings HC in Sweden, it wouldn't be a surprise if he got another look in North America based on his play in Pyeongchang.

Neil Davidson of the Canadian Press noted the veteran center had an injury scare in the third period:

He later returned to the contest, though.

The Czech Republic, which lost to the Olympic Athletes from Russia in the semifinals, could never cut the deficit to less than two the rest of the way despite three goals in the third period.

Hockey Canada celebrated the triumph:

CBC News' Devin Heroux summed up the game:

The hockey tournament at the Pyeongchang Games will come to a close Sunday (11:10 p.m. ET in the United States) with the OAR team taking on Germany in the gold-medal game.