Silly Swede Coach Upstages Championship Day at Worlds

COLOGNE, Germany -- It was a childish moment by a veteran coach at the final day of the IIHF World Hockey Championship.

With his team winning 3-1 in the bronze medal game and with 0.7 seconds left on the clock, Sweden coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson called a time out. He summoned goalie Jonas Gustavsson to the bench and back-up Anders Lindback jumped over the boards.

The linesman dropped the puck, and Lindback was officially part of the 2010 tournament, with one second of playing time to his credit.

But Gustafsson later admitted his decision had nothing to do with making sure Lindback was officially part of the record book. And he said he wasn't being disrespectful to the host Germans.

He was taking aim at members of the Swedish media who questioned his decision-making process in the last minute of play in Sweden's semifinal loss to the Czech Republic.

In the game in question, the Swedes were nursing a 2-1 lead when they iced the puck with 15 seconds left in the third period. Gustafsson, pictured at right, called a time out to give his players a rest, and the Czechs wound up tying the game and then winning in a shootout.

The Swedish media thought the timeout benefited the Czechs and the knives were out.

So when the coach had the chance to stick it to the media, he went for it and took glee in doing so.

"This has to do with the Swedish media. Now I am going back to my hotel room, have a glass of red wine and laugh at you," he said.

But the childish act by Gustafsson was just one of many blemishes to mar the 2010 world tournament.

The video of a German assistant coach punching a Swiss player and breaking his nose in a post-game brawl in the quarterfinals has made the rounds on the web. The coach, Ernst Hofner, was suspended for two games and the Swiss player, Timo Helbing, is considering charges.

Earlier, the International Ice Hockey Federation had to issue an apology to Sidney Crosby after a column on the IIHF website blasted several NHL players for not accepting the call to play in the world championship. The column was later pulled.

Olympic champion Canada finished seventh, and the United States, the silver medalist three months ago, was 13th -- although it must be said they each entered mediocre teams.

Then there was the boycott of the Russian media by Russian players when pictures were broadcast of a few players smoking cigarettes in a bar.

Lost in the shuffle was the IIHF welcoming the hockey hotbed of Morocco as its 69th member.

Meanwhile, in the gold medal game, the vaunted Russians managed to disappoint again by losing to the Czech Republic 2-1.

The favored Russians boasted a who's who of NHL stars, including Pavel Datsyuk, Alexander Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Alexander Semin, while the Czechs had a team of guys who aren't even household names in their own country.

Russia was going for its third straight world title and took a 27-game winning streak dating back to 2007 into the gold medal game.

"The talent doesn't matter. It is how much you work," said Jaromir Jagr as he pulled on his gold medal.