Tomas Vokoun made 29 saves and three different players scored, as the Czech Republic captured the gold medal at the World Hockey Championships with a 3-0 victory over two-time defending champion Canada. Vokoun, the netminder for the Nashville Predators, stopped 10 shots in the first period, 11 in the second and eight more in the third to lift the Czechs to their first world gold medal since 2001. Vaclav Prospal scored early in the first period, before Martin Rucinsky and Josef Vasicek added goals in the third to ice it. Martin Brodeur, who backstopped Canada to Olympic gold in 2002 and last summer's World Cup gold medal, finished with 24 saves in defeat. Prospal gave the Czechs an early lead when he banged a shot past Brodeur just 4:13 into the contest, but the three-time Stanley Cup-winning goaltender of the New Jersey Devils made a brilliant glove save on Jan Hlavac to keep it a one-goal game late in the opening stanza. Vokoun was outstanding in the second period when he continued to keep Canada off the board, and the Czechs killed off a penalty to start the third. Soon after Canada failed on the power play, the Czechs made it a 2-0 game when Rucinsky blasted a shot past Brodeur at the 3:12 mark. The Canadians still couldn't solve Vokoun and gained a power play with 2:33 to play in the contest. Brodeur came out of the net a minute later for a 6-on-4 skating advantage, but Vasicek scored into the empty cage to seal it in the final minute. The bronze medal went to Russia, which got a pair of early goals from Maxim Afinogenov and rolled to a 6-3 victory over Sweden earlier in the day. Afinogenov found the net just 62 seconds into the contest and the Buffalo Sabres forward made it 2-0 at the 3:58 mark. The Russians never trailed from there to earn just their third medal since 1991 and first since a silver at the 2002 championships. Alexander Ovechkin, the first overall pick of the 2004 NHL Draft by the Washington Capitals, added a goal and two assists for Russia. Alexei Kovalev, Alexei Yashin and Alexander Semin also scored goals in the victory. The Russians, who were beaten by Canada in Saturday's semifinals for their first loss of the tournament, scored three goals in the first period and three in the second. The three second-period tallies came in a span of just over seven minutes and put the game away. Henrik Zetterberg of the Detroit Red Wings and Henrik Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks were among the goal scorers for Sweden, which dropped a 3-2 decision in overtime to the Czech Republic in the semifinals.