Czechs finish third of Group A

To end the preliminary round, the Czechs met Team France and both teams pretty much desperately needed a win to avoid Russia in quaterfinals. That is one thing why people could look forward to a hell of a show at the Chizhovka Arena.

It didn't take long for the first goal to come and not surprisingly, it was Alexander Salák who had to fish the puck out of the Czech net following a shot by Jonathan Janil that was deflected past the KHL star goalie by Julien Desrosiers. The Czechs could tie the score soon with Tomáš Hertl getting on a breakaway, but neither he nor Jaromír Jágr on a follow up chance managed to beat Florian Hardy in the French goal.

Not long after that, Team France had a powerplay and Stephane Da Costa sent a dangerous wrister on Salák who made the save despite no visibility. Coast-to-coast action saw the Czechs almost cashing in on Roman Červenka's breakout after pursuit of a lose puck, but his backhander didn't get past Hardy. And then Anthony Guttig fed Teddy Da Costa on the other side, but the French-Polish forward fired one off Salák and out.

Zatovic chasing the puck.
Photo: Roman Kucera

Wild three minutes ensued to conclude the first period in a surprising way. Team France would take a two-goal lead with Desrosiers finding the back of the net again, this time one-timing the puck home after a powerplay feed by Teddy Da Costa. Less than a minute later, Laurent Meunier received a perfect pass from Damien Raux on a circle and blasted a slapper past Salák to give France an unexpected 3-0 lead.

But the Czechs would get a powerplay chance in the last minute of the period and they actually managed to beat the buzzer and score a game-changing goal when Hertl found Vladimír Sobotka on the doorstep and the St. Louis workhorse got the puck past Hardy to get the Czechs on the scoreboard.

It wasn't much, but teams came back from larger deficits and Jiří Sekáč made another imporatnt step just after the second frame began. The Lev Prague forward carried the puck in on a wing and just dumped a backhander on net and it got past Hardy to cut the lead to a single goal. Two minutes later, Brian Henderson could have renewed the two-goal cushion as he went one-on-one with Salák, but failed on the shot.

Midway through the first, pace started picking up again and things became wild once more and the Czechs managed to tie things up with the legend, Jaromír Jágr, tipping the shot by Michal Jordán on its way to the net and it found a way into the back of the net. France wanted to respond quickly, but Salák made a huge save after Teddy Da Costa fed Damien Fleury in front.

Feeding off the momentum, the Czechs managed to complete the comeback soon after Jágr's goal and on a delayed call, Martin Zaťovič found the puck in a scramble on the French doorstep and put it over the goal line. Later on, Jágr was given a chance to cash in on a penalty shot, but he fired one off the post and it was French turn to ring one off the goal construction as Fleury followed with a shot off the iron of his own just ninety seconds later.

So the Czechs were going into the third up by one, but France didn't want any part of it. First, Stephane Da Costa fired one on Salák who gave up a big rebound, but it was swatted away in time. Then, Antoine Roussel did what he was told to do in the dressing room and beat Salák on a backhander following a pass by Fleury.

With the score tied again, both teams wanted to break the deadlock. First, Bellemare took the puck on the blue line and then fired one on Salák who made a big save, then the Czechs took charge, but breakouts by Michal Vondrka and Jiří Hudler had no success and Hardy didn't even have to make a save on either one of them.

Manavian and Vondrka.
Photo: Roman Kucera

Later on, Jágr looked for Sobotka with a pass to the doorstep, but again, Hardy was better. And on the other side, Yorick Treille had a big chance right in front, but he didn't get enough power on the shot and so the game needed overtime to settle things down.

In OT, France was under huge pressure and the Czechs wanted to capitalize. Červenka and Jágr had big chances after long shots by Ondřej Vitásek and Jakub Kindl and just about a minute later, Petr Zámorský fired another blast from the blue line and Jan Kolář was right there to redirect it past Hardy and give the Czechs a little easier opponent in the Americans, while France has a big hill to climb already, meeting Russians in quarterfinals.

Tweets by @eurohockey