Ivan Hlinka was the Herb Brooks of the Czech Republic, bringing Olympic gold and national exhilaration to a homeland that embraces hockey much the same way America adores football and basketball.

Michal Dolezal, Associated Press Penguins General Manager Craig Patrick: "Ivan Hlinka was a tremendous ambassador for the game of hockey." Click photo for larger image.

He was a trailblazer whisked with Brooks' blessing from Europe to the National Hockey League, where he worked alongside Brooks as an associate head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins the final three months of 1999-2000 and then succeeded him in 2000-01.

Yesterday, one year and five days after Brooks' death in Minnesota, Mr. Hlinka likewise was killed in an automobile accident in the Czech Republic, not far from his home. He was 54.

"I can't talk. It's very tough to explain my feelings," former Penguins and 1998 Olympic champion defenseman Jiri Slegr said haltingly over his cellular telephone from the Czech Republic, where he prepared to report to the national team's World Cup of Hockey training camp Friday -- with Mr. Hlinka as his coach. "I've been very close to him."

Many Czechs promptly went into mourning upon hearing the reports that came -- eerily similar to Brooks' news -- in the late afternoon of a Monday. Even the Czech delegation headquarters at the Olympics in Athens flew flags at half-staff.

The Sportovni Noviny, a national sports Web site, within four hours of the initial report posted no fewer than 11 stories about Mr. Hlinka's life and tragic death, including President Vaclav Klaus expressing his sorrow. "I admired and respected him very much ... and hardly anyone will ever replace him," Klaus said.

He died in a hospital shortly after the car he was driving collided head-on with an oncoming truck near the town of Karlovy Vary, about 70 miles west of Prague. He was apparently returning home to Prague after visiting the resort area for both a Saturday hockey banquet and a meeting with his former Penguins and 1998 Olympic team star, Jaromir Jagr, who then confirmed to his coach that he would be playing for him in the upcoming World Cup.

The Czech team camp is scheduled to open Friday at Prague's Szaka Arena, with an exhibition there against Finland on Monday.

Mr. Hlinka (pronounced Huh-LINK-uh), after a decorated career as a center and then a coach who turned Czech hockey into a world power, joined Brooks behind the Penguins bench on Feb. 20, 2000. Brooks, the interim head coach at the time, welcomed the associate head coach who participated in a 11-10-2-1 Penguins finish and push to the playoffs' second round. Mr. Hlinka officially replaced Brooks on June 21.

Bolstered by the return of owner Mario Lemieux as a player, the Penguins proceeded to finish 42-28-9-3 that season under Mr. Hlinka, reaching the Eastern Conference finals.

However, the 2001-02 season started with four consecutive losses, with the Penguins looking disorganized on the ice and behind the bench, with Mr. Hlinka showing little progress in grasping English after team officials a spring earlier recommended that he learn the language better. He was fired Oct. 14, 2001.

	Associated Press Coach Ivan Hlinka confers with then-Penguins captain and NHL scoring champion Jaromir Jagr during a team practice in April 2000. Click photo for larger image.

"I liked Ivan," said Rick Kehoe, a former Penguins assistant who ended up replacing him. "Hockey-wise, Ivan was up there with the best of them. He played the game. He coached for a lot of years. He had a lot of success, especially in Europe. And when he coached with us, he went to the conference finals.

"But the language barrier was a problem at times. It'd be like going over to Europe and having an American coach coaching over there. You know the game, it's getting it across to them [that's difficult]."

Often, a locker-room filled with Czechs -- Slegr, Jagr, Martin Straka, Robert Lang and Josef Beranek (who all played on Hlinka's Nagano champions) plus Jan Hrdina, Milan Kraft, Michal Rozsival and Josef Melichar -- helped to bridge the communication gap. Former Penguins defenseman Ian Moran, for one, claimed he never had much of a hardship understanding this man from Most.

"The language barrier made it tougher for him than it should have been. But everyone who played for him knew that he knew his stuff," Moran said.

Mr. Hlinka played on Czech teams that won world championship gold in 1972, 1976 and 1977, Olympics silver in 1976 and Olympics bronze in 1972. In the inaugural Canada Cup in 1976, he was named the tournament's top forward, propelling the Czechs to an upset of the Soviet Union.

Coaching with fabulous success in the Czech league, he moved on to the national bench, where he guided his country's team to gold in the 1998 Olympics that were the first for NHLers.

"I mean, they had some superstars playing for him, don't get me wrong," Kehoe said. "But you have to know how to control them, too. He did an excellent job."

After flaming out in the Penguins' experiment 3 1/2 years later, Mr. Hlinka returned to Europe, where he was general manager of the Czech 2002 Olympic team and also named that year to the International Ice Hockey Federation hall of fame. Last spring, at a Prague ceremony as part of the World Championships, he was named as the best Czech player of all time. A few weeks later, he was reappointed coach of the national team for the World Cup.

Mr. Hlinka is survived by his wife, Libena.

"Ivan Hlinka was a tremendous ambassador for the game of hockey," Penguins General Manager Craig Patrick said in a statement. "He was a great hockey player, a player that many of the current Czech players idolized growing up."