Czech Goaltender Hasek Is Out With Groin Injury

The Olympic tournament is over for Czech goaltender Dominik Hasek, who strained a groin muscle while making a save in the first period of his team’s opener Wednesday. The team’s training staff recommended that Hasek not play again here and repeated that advice to forward Patrik Elias, who suffered a rib injury in the first game.

Hasek, 41, was the key to the Czech Republic’s triumph in 1998, the first Olympics in which NHL players were allowed to represent their homelands. He has been enjoying a strong season with the Ottawa Senators.

“Our medical staff decided that I’m not able to play,” he said. “It’s over. Also, I don’t want to get hurt for the rest of the NHL” season.

Elias, who recently returned to the New Jersey Devils’ lineup after recovering from hepatitis A, was said to be in pain from a rib injury he suffered when he was cross-checked by a German player in the Czechs’ opener.

The Czechs beat Germany Wednesday and were upset by Switzerland on Thursday.

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Sweden’s 3-2 semifinal victory over the U.S. in the women’s hockey tournament might have some ripple effects.

Swedish forward Erika Holst, who played four years of college hockey at the University of Minnesota Duluth, said she hoped the upset would stimulate interest among young women and draw financial and fan support for the women’s game.

“I’m pretty sure this is going to help,” she said. “The last few years have been way better in terms of support from the Swedish Hockey Assn. It’s a little different for us than in the States because we don’t have high school and college programs. We have club teams.”

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Chris Soule finished 25th among 27 racers in men’s skeleton Friday, closer to last place than to a medal but not all that bad, given the circumstances.

The U.S. team had long been selected when Soule’s phone rang on the previous Friday, the day of the opening ceremony. Soule was in Lake Placid, N.Y., teaching at a skeleton fantasy camp.

Zach Lund had been suspended under anti-doping rules, and the U.S. team needed Soule to replace him. Soule flew to Turin last Saturday and did not hit the course for training until Monday. He said he spent the rest of the week eating, training and taking naps.

“I’ve been almost like a dog,” he said.

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A car taking Evgeni Plushenko to the Milan airport was involved in an accident in dense fog early Friday, hours after the Russian had won the gold medal in Olympic men’s figure skating.

No one was hurt in the chain-reaction collision, said Ari Zakarian, Plushenko’s agent.

Zakarian said Plushenko, his coach and his choreographer were being driven to the Milan airport to fly back to St. Petersburg, Russia, where Plushenko lives and trains. He was to be honored by the city for his Olympic victory.

Turin police spokeswoman Valeria d’Ubald said Plushenko took his plane as scheduled.

“It was a bump, a minor accident, a very, very small accident,” she said.

Plushenko is scheduled to be back in Turin in time for the closing exhibition of skating champions Feb. 24.

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Ted Saskin, president of the NHL players’ association, lashed out at Dick Pound, telling the World Anti-Doping Agency chief to stick to subjects he knows.

“We have a brand new drug program we think is well tailored to our sport and I don’t really feel the need to respond to people who frankly don’t know much about our sport, our athletes or anything,” Saskin told reporters during a news conference.

“As for Dick Pound, he probably has a large enough mandate worrying about the Olympics. He should confine himself to subjects he knows something about.”

Pound and the NHL have engaged in a war of words since the WADA chief suggested last November that up to one-third of NHL players were using banned substances. Just before the opening of the Winter Games, Pound again criticized the league for not doing enough to fight doping.

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Russian biathlete Olga Pyleva, thrown out of the Olympics and stripped of her silver medal for doping, was suspended for two years by the sport’s sanctioning body, then learned that she must face Italian magistrates. Pyleva, who had won silver in Monday’s 15-kilometer individual biathlon, downplayed the suspension, saying she was retiring from the sport anyway, but was stunned to hear that she was being called in for questioning by Italian officials.

“What? There is a case against me?” Pyleva, visibly shocked, asked reporters.

Reuters reported that under Italian law, through an accord with the International Olympic Assn., athletes are liable for conviction if caught doping. Pyleva could be facing a two-year suspended prison sentence.

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Times staff writers Helene Elliott and Bill Shaikin contributed to this report.