Photo credit: Elena Rusko

After being eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs by the Tampa Bay Lightning, Alex Ovechkin joined Team Russia with hopes of a different outcome at the 2011 World Championships in Slovakia. Once again, however, Ovi will began with summer vacation without a championship as Russia fell, 7-4, to the Czech Republic in the Bronze Medal Game. This ends an awful tournament for the Great Eight. After being held scoreless yet again — while registering four shots and being a minus-one — he ends the Worlds with zero points in six games.

Later in the day, Finland, the team that defeated Russia in the semi-finals, bested Sweden by a score of 6-1 to win its second ever World Championship.

As for Russia’s match, it was a wild one. The 11 total goals mark an all-time IIHF high for a third place game. Czech player Roman Cervenka — who plays for a Russian club team, Avangard Omsk of the KHL — netted a hat-trick, while teammate Petr Prucha — also of aRussian KHL team, in this case SKA Saint Petersburg — tallied two goals. On the other end, Devils’ star Ilya Kovalchuk was Russia’s main source of offense in the loss, registering two goals. Russian goalie Konstantin Barulin — who was drafted by the Blues in 2003 but opted to stay in homeland — took the brunt of the Czech offensive explosion, giving up six goals before the seventh was scored on an empty net.

Now, Ovechkin’s offseason starts. He stated that he plans to revamp his summer training regimen after beginning the regular season in admittedly less than top form. “I’m at a time where I want to be better and better, ” Ovi said the day after being bounced from the playoffs. “So, I don’t want to stop finding the right way to be better. … It’s going to be new for me because I don’t want to stop. I want to keep growing up like a player, like a person too.”

We, however, eagerly await more photos of him in a Speedo.

Game Photos

Photo credit: Matthew Manor

Photo credit: Matthew Manor

Photo credit: Matthew Manor

Photo credit: Matthew Manor

Photo credit: Matthew Manor

Photo credit: David W. Cerny

Photo credit: Jukka Rautio

Photo credit: Matthew Manor

Photo credit: Jukka Rautio

Photo credit: Jukka Rautio

Photo credit: Jukka Rautio

Photo credit: Matthew Manor

Photo credit: Jukka Rautio

Photo credit: Matthew Manor

Photo credit: Elena Rusko

Photo credit: Elena Rusko

Photo credit: Matthew Manor

Photo credit: Matthew Manor

RolinekFace strikes again.  (Photo credit: Jukka Rautio)

Photo credit: Jukka Rautio

Photo credit: Matthew Manor