Slovakia beat their archrivals

Czech came to the game very hard working and good tempo. They flew over the neutral zone and Slovakkian defenders had their hands full of job when trying to keep fast skatin Czechs out of scoring places. However Slovaks succeded in that pretty well and those few kind of chances Czechs had goalie Jan Laco saved easily. When Czechs were concentrating in offensive play that allowed also to Slovaks some chances. They tried to open their own game fast and because Czech defenders often overplayed themselves out Slovaks had some good counter attacks. One of those led to a after 16 minutes goal when Miroslav Satan got the puck on the left side and shot from a very narrow angle. Puck went through Jakub Kovar's legs and actually was a shot what he should have taken. First period was very entertaining hockey and no signs of nervosity nor tensed play. There as also injury for Czech team when Martin Erat was hit. It looked a bit like interference but there was no penalty.  

In the second period game became a bit boring compared to the first period. Czechs were controlling clearly the game but during the first ten minutes there weren't too many scoring chances if any. Slovakia played like against Canada trying to play safe defensively and hit back when the chance came. Czech got their equalizer after 10.45 they won a face off in Slovakian zone and Michael Frolik shot directly and beat Jan Laco from a short side. Totally deserved goal for the Czechs. In the second period there were again couple of injuries more when Slovakia's Tomas Starosta hit the boards. He was pushed from behind by Petr Prucha but no penalty here neither. Then a bit later Czech's Michael Frolik left the ice when he was hit on the neutral zone by Mario Bliznak. No penalty and this looked more like a collision rather than a tackle.

At the end of second period Slovakia got a penalty and Czech started the last period with power play. However it was Slovakia who scored. Michal Handzus interrupted a bad Czech pass on Slovakian zone, sent Miroslav Satan into a breakaway and Satan scored his second of the game. Couple of minutes later Czechs were playing sloppy on their own zone bouncing the puck on the left side beside the boards. Puck bounced to Libor Hudacek who was suddenly alone with Kovar and scored a nice goal. After the goal Czechs went totally shocked. They couldn't create anything anymore and Slovakia was totally controlling the game. After twelve minutes Czech had the final chance to start en end rush when Slovakia got a penalty but even the power play was really bad and as a matter of fact Slovakia had better chances to score. Two minutes before the end Czech pulled goalie out and tried with six on four, create big pressure on Slovakia's goal but maybe the best goalie of the tournament, Jan Laco, took it all.

Game was most of the time controlled by Czech but Slovakia played again really great based on their own system playing safe on the defense and then trying to take maximum out of the scoring chances they get. It will be interesting to see how this works in final against Russia.

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