Tough loss for the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic probably did their best game so far but still lost it 1-2 to Canada in a close game that either team could have won. A hard loss for the Czech Republic who now needs to rely on Switzerland to beat Norway tonight to still be in the race for a quarter final spot.

"It was the first game we really played our game here", Czech coach Alois Hadamczik said. "We skated really well and it's a shame that we didn't score more on our chances".

It was not easy for the Czechs to find ways to score today.
Photo: Michal Eger

Canada took advantage of their great power play to take the lead at halfway through the first when Jakub Voracek was in the box for a charging against Canada's netminder Mike Smith. Eric Staal with a pass from the right wing that just took a tiny deflection of the stick of Wayne Simmonds for 1-0.

"It feels pretty good", Simmonds commented on scoring his first goal of the tournament and admitted it was a hard game. "They played well, both teams played well. We played defensively and our goalkeeper was amazing".

Canada felt like the clearly better team but the Czechs tied the game late in third when Petr Koukal scored on a rebound from a long range shot that didn't seem dangerous at first. Just a minute later the Czechs had a brilliant opportunity to take the lead but Hertl wasn't able to finish off his breakaway.

The second period started with a high tempo and teams exchanged scoring chances with eachother. Canada being closest when Stevan Stamkos hit the post on a rebound from a shot from Claude Giroux who once again was good for Canada.

6:58 into the second period the Czecs were given a golden opportunity to take over the game when Luke Schenn recieved a match penalty for checking from behind on Zbynek Irgl who was bleeding from his nose after his head hit the edge of the board in the fall. But a tripping penalty by Martin Hanzal gave Canada some breathing room in the five minute penalty making it only three minute to kill which they did in a good way.

The penalty however destroyed the rhytm of the game and Canada had some problems finding their game again after the penalty ended, the period was even with some chances but no goals were scored and teams went into the third period tied at one.

The third period started as a battle and it was clear that both teams really wanted to score the next goal and it was Canada who did it after a fantastic individual effort by Jeff Skinner, skating all the way through the neutral zone along the left side of the Czech zone around the net to score at the other side. Perhaps Pavelec shoud have done a better job of protecting that post.

"I took around and I just tried to throw it in and it took a bounce in", Skinner said smiling about his goal.

A happy Canadian fan.
Photo: Michal Eger

After that the Czechs had problems recovering and it wasn't easier when they got some very hard penalties against them and they never really got the chance to come back. The Czech head coach also showed his anger at the referees at the press conference afterwards and finished his speach about the game with saying "And I also think that the referees didn't have the same level as the teams" and added "I've been at many World Championship and this is the first time I'm commenting the referees like this".

Canada's head coach Lindy Ruff did admit that his team was a bit lucky to win ths game. "One of the tougher games we played here. The Czechs played very good and put pressure on us. Our goalie came up with some big saves when we needed it. The third period was even and we took the break from that goal from Skinner. It was a game that either team could have won".

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