TURIN, Italy — Martin Erat took a pass from David Vyborny and scored 4:48 after the opening faceoff Saturday to set the Czech Republic on course for a 3-0 victory over Russia in the Olympic men's hockey bronze medal match.

A matchup like this was worthy of gold-medal status but both teams dropped semifinal matchups a night earlier to Nordic countries. Sweden knocked out the Czechs, and Finland topped Russia - which didn't score in the medal round.

Russia, which lost 4-0 on Friday after winning five straight, had its offence bolstered by the return of teenager Evgeni Malkin, who had to sit out against Finland because of an infraction against Canada in the quarter-finals.

But the Russians lost Ilya Kovalchuk - its second-leading scorer - after he was ejected for an elbow to the face of Pavel Kubina behind the Czech net in the second period that left the Tampa Bay defenceman bloodied.

Marek Zidlicky made Russia pay when he ripped a shot in from the blue line off a pass from NHL leading scorer Jaromir Jagr at 6:36. Martin Straka sealed it with eight seconds left with an empty-net goal on the Czech's 15th and final shot.

Jagr was injured in the second period and went to the locker-room. He returned to the bench in the third period but didn't play.

Russia outshot the Czechs 12-2 in the final period and had a goal by Pavel Datsyuk of Detroit waved off because he was ruled to have struck the puck with a high stick.

It was the second Olympic medal for the Czech Republic in the three times NHL players have been featured in the games. They captured gold in 1998 with Dominik Hasek in the nets.

Russia, the bronze medallist four years ago in Salt Lake City, left the Olympics without a men's hockey medal for just the second time since joining the competition as the Soviet Union for the 1956 Games.

It was the fourth consecutive tournament that Russia didn't win the gold after taking it home six times in seven tries.