Czechs close to quarterfinal

Important game for both teams as they come into their sixth game of the tournament with the same amount of points. Both were pretty much tied with France and Slovakia in the race for the quarterfinals that sees two parties involved surprisingly, including Norway. The Czech Republic, on the other hand, is not taking home anything but a place in the next stage.

With such a critical game ahead and after a loss to Denmark just the day before, it looked like the entire country was nervous. That kind of feeling could go away after just 39 seconds when the Czechs opened the scoring. Jaromír Jágr centered the puck to the doorstep, Tomáš Hertl deflected it on Steffen Soberg and the rebound went to Vladimír Sobotka who was there to bury it and send his team up by one.

In the first it looked like the Czechs were a little better, but the Norwegians sure had their chances. Sondre Olden had two of them, first getting stopped by Alexander Salák following a bad giveaway by Ondřej Němec, then getting robbed by Salák after a great pass from the corner. The 27-year-old goaltender was stellar in the first and stopped all eight shots.

The Czechs also had a big chance during a wild scramble in Soberg's crease when Sobotka came in to cause trouble and as the doorstep was jammed for about five to ten seconds, several shots came flying in, but none got past Soberg and into the back of the net.

The second period was just as fun as the first one with both teams trying hard to change the score, but none actually getting the job done with both Soberg and Salák pretty great in their respective nets.

The Norwegians got very close midway through the period when Salák threw his stick on Morten Ask which disrupted the play behind the net and the referees were pretty clear about the fact that a penalty shot was going to be called. Ken Andre Olimb took care of things and looked pretty good out there, but Salák knew what to do and gave him no space to score.

The shots on goal were 15-5 for the Czechs in the second and it sure looked like they hade more chances to get in front. Roman Červenka came very close late in the frame when his long shot hit the post and stayed out. 

In the third period, the Norwegians did their best to erase the one-goal deficit and came pretty close again with Mathis Olimb having a big chance to score halfway through. Later on, they had the Czechs under pressure, but the last minute of desperation hockey was not enough to give them points. Salák made eight more saves in the third and stayed perfect for the whole sixty.

With the victory, the Czechs climb up the standings into the third place in Group A and things look pretty good for them. If they beat France, which is not an easy task to do though, they will go on to the quarterfinals. 

Team Norway, on the other hand, needs to beat Canada just to have a chance to advance. So what looked like a very good tournament for them, looks like another year among the average after all.

"We stopped playing again and started losing pucks in the neutral zone. That's something we need to eliminate", says Vladimír Sobotka to Eurohockey.com.

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