THE OLYMPICS / WINTER GAMES AT ALBERTVILLE : U.S. Gets Czeched Out of a Medal : Hockey: Bronze goes to Czechoslovakia as Americans dominated again, 6-1.

His face as empty as his heart, goaltender Ray LeBlanc watched Czechoslovakia’s hockey team celebrate its bronze-medal victory over the United States Saturday.

Having met their mismatch once again, LeBlanc and his teammates lost to Czechoslovakia, 6-1, placing them fourth in the Olympic hockey tournament. In their semifinal loss to the Unified Team on Friday, they stayed even for two periods; on Saturday, the Czechs exposed their every defensive weakness and toyed with them for much of the game.

“How things turned out is kind of sad,” said LeBlanc, who received a standing ovation from the remaining fans at the Olympic Arena when he was replaced by Scott Gordon at 2:38 of the third period.

“It’s been a long tournament and we played a lot of games,” said LeBlanc, who faced 298 shots in eight games and stopped all but 17. “I don’t think it’s a bad ending, really, finishing fourth in the world. Going in, nobody expected us to finish higher than seventh or eighth. I’m proud. I have nothing to be ashamed about. Nothing.”

In winning its seventh Olympic hockey medal--four silver and three bronze--Czechoslovakia outshot the tired Americans, 47-29. After skating from the outset with a verve their opponents lacked, the Czechs completed two slick passing plays to score twice within 71 seconds late in the first period.

On the first, King draft pick Robert Lang dug the puck out of the left corner and passed it back to the blue line for Daniel Kadlec, whose shot was deflected into the goal by Frantisek Prochazka at 16:12. Otakar Janecky set up Thomas Jelinek for a 2-0 lead at 17:23, passing the puck through the vacant slot.

“We hung Ray out to dry on a couple of goals tonight,” U.S. captain Clark Donatelli said. “We gave up a lot of three-on-twos and two-on-ones, and he’s not Superman. He can only play so well.”

His defense didn’t play well at all, a fault LeBlanc pointed out to Coach Dave Peterson between the first and second periods. But Peterson couldn’t remedy the problem, and the second period became a target-practice session for the Czechs, who passed with such skill that they quickly quashed the Americans’ hopes of getting back into the game. In addition to denying the United States control of the puck, Czechoslovakia padded its lead to 3-0 at 5:51 of the middle period on a shot from the right circle by Kamil Kastak.

“That early lead they got shook us up,” forward Joe Sacco said. “We thought if we got one early in the second, we could come back. But we can’t complain. The Czechoslovakians capitalized on their opportunities.”

The only goal yielded by Petr Briza was a squibber under his pads on a shot by Ted Drury at 6:55 of the third period.

“We had a good first period, and it’s very hard to change the way the game is going because after seven games, you are tired,” said Briza, who will receive a Skoda--a Czechoslovakian car--and money for winning the bronze medal.

Had he won the gold medal, Briza said, he would have gotten “a better car and more money.” But he was delighted with his bounty. “This bronze medal is very good for us, “ he said.

The U.S. team’s 5-2-1 record was a good showing, too, but its losses in its last two games demonstrate the gap that remains between the United States and the European teams, who are far more accustomed to playing on larger international rinks.

“Any time we stay in the top four in this tournament, it’s indicative of the fact we’re making progress,” Peterson said. “We’re not where we wish to be in USA Hockey, but we’re getting better.”

Still, they weren’t good enough to approach the Czechs’ level Saturday. “We’re a little disappointed, but we know we gave it our best shot,” Donatelli said. “We tried to represent one of the finest countries in the world like gentlemen. Every guy in the locker room can look at himself and say he played his best.”

Said Sacco: “We really expected to win the bronze tonight. Everybody thought we would. We didn’t come out with a medal, but fourth place is not bad. Once we get over our sadness, I think we’ll all realize that.”