Few Surprises on Czech, Russian Hockey Rosters

Twelve players from the gold medal-winning 1998 Czech Olympic hockey team will defend their title at the Salt Lake City Winter Games, according to the roster announced Friday by the Czech Hockey Federation.

However, defenseman Petr Svoboda, who scored the decisive goal against Russia in the title game, and forward Martin Straka were left off the team because of injuries. Svoboda, who plays for the Toronto Maple Leafs, is suffering from post-concussion syndrome and Straka, of the Pittsburgh Penguins, has a broken leg.

Goaltender Dominik Hasek, whose acrobatics led the Czechs past the U.S., Canada and Russia, will again be in goal. He will be backed up by Roman Cechmanek of the Philadelphia Flyers and Roman Turek of the Calgary Flames.

Russia also announced its roster, a mix that includes 41-year-old Igor Larionov--who won gold medals with the Soviet Union’s “Big Red Machine” in 1984 and 1988--and 18-year-old Atlanta Thrasher rookie standout Ilya Kovalchuk. Also named was Red Wing forward Sergei Fedorov, who had been reluctant to play but was drawn in by Coach Viacheslav Fetisov, one of the most revered figures in Russian hockey history.

Larionov, Fedorov’s teammate in Detroit, was appointed the team’s captain, replacing Pavel Bure of the Florida Panthers, who was the captain at Nagano.Added to the preliminary roster were defensemen Vladimir Malakhov of the New York Rangers, Danny Markov of Phoenix and Boris Mironov of Chicago. They join Sergei Gonchar of Washington, Darius Kasparaitis of Pittsburgh, Oleg Tverdovsky of the Mighty Ducks and Dmitry Yushkevitch of Toronto. Added at forward were Maxim Afinogenov of Buffalo, Viktor Kozlov of Florida, Andrei Nikolishin of Washington, Sergei Samsonov of Boston, Alexei Zhamnov of Chicago and Oleg Kvasha of the New York Islanders.

Three players turned Fetisov down: Alexander Mogilny of Toronto, Alex Zhitnik of Buffalo and Sergei Zubov of Dallas.

Nikolai Khabibulin of Tampa Bay got one goaltending spot, as did the only player chosen from Russia’s domestic league, Yegor Podamatsky of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. Fetisov hopes to add Evgeni Nabokov of San Jose, but the International Ice Hockey Federation ruled him ineligible because he played for Kazakhstan as a teenager. Russia appealed that to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The Czechs will have three European-based players but will rely on NHL standouts such as Jaromir Jagr of Washington, Milan Hejduk and Martin Skoula of Colorado, Patrik Elias of New Jersey and Jan Hrdina of Pittsburgh.

The U.S. will announce its final six players today, the final day for submitting Olympic rosters.

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Ottawa will allow three Slovak players to take leaves to play for Slovakia in the preliminary round of the Olympic tournament. Zdeno Chara and Marian Hossa will be released to play against Germany on Feb. 9, and Ivan Ciernik will be released to play that game and against Latvia Feb. 10 and Austria Feb. 12. Phoenix previously said it would allow Michal Handzus, Ladislav Nagy and Radoslav Suchy to play for Slovakia Feb. 9.

Slovakia is among eight teams vying for two spots in the final round against the six seeded teams: Canada, the U.S., Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic and Russia. Two teams from the preliminary round will advance.

The San Jose Sharks said they would release German forward Marco Sturm to play against Slovakia Feb. 9. However, few other NHL teams are releasing key players for those preliminary games.