Draisaitl Leads Europe to Overtime Win

It started slow, but the action picked up in an important game for both Europe and the Czech Republic, with Europe taking the 3-2 victory in overtime.

With tickets on the re-sale market for about $3 CDN prior to the game, it was clear there wasn't going to be a large following for the first game of the week. The game itself started off very slow, despite large implications between the two teams participating. For the Czech's, they needed a victory to have a chance to make the semi-finals, while Europe was hoping to make it extremely tough for the Americans to advance.

Because of that, both teams didn't want to take a lot of chances. That was evident by the lack of scoring opportunities, including a six minute stretch of time without a single shot during the opening period for either team.

The second period featured two teams that showed a stronger interest in the game. The most dramatic moment of the first half of the game happened after Anze Kopitar was taken down on a scoring chance in front, colliding into Peter Mrazek and drawing a penalty shot. Kopitar, a talented star with the puck, made a couple of solid dekes heading towards the net, but Mrazek was strong on the play and kept the game scoreless with a good paddle save.

By the halfway point in the game, Europe held a 24-9 shot advantage in what truly was becoming a one-sided game when it came to puck control. Europe would get rewarded for that, with one of the most unlikely sources contributing to the offense. After Thomas Vanek's shot was stopped and sent to the boards, Zdeno Chara took a seeing-eye snapshot that soared over Mrazek and in for the first goal of the game.

With seven minutes to go, the Czech's finally got their first goal of the tournament. Michal Jordan got the puck off the boards, allowing Jakub Voracek to break in through the neutral zone. Voracek then sent a hard, accurate wrist shot below Halak's blocker, giving fans their first tie game of the tournament thanks to a 1-1 knot in the score.

A 5-on-3 power play for Europe to start the final period proved to be dangerous for the Czech Republic. Europe made the Czech's fly all over the own zone, with Mrazek bailing them out every time. In fact, Mrazek made potentially one of the best saves of the tournament, diving across the crease to stop a shot by Christian Ehrhoff from 25 feet out, a magnificent glove stop to keep the game tied.

But two minutes later, Europe got a lucky one. After Jaroslav Halak sent the puck out to Mats Zuccarello, Zucarello skated in on and net and sent a soft one towards Mrazek, who somehow couldn't make the stop. The puck hit off his glove and trickled in, giving Europe their second lead of the game.

The Czech's were hungry to stay alive, and Martin Hanzal was there to make it happen. With 8:31 off the clock in the third, Vladimir Sobotka's point shot on the power play went just wide. Hanzal was right there to capitalize on the attempt, knocking in the rebound at the doorstep to tie the game up for the second time in the game.

The game required overtime to figure out the winner. With 2:54 left in the 3-on-3 bonanza, Leon Draisaitl finished off the game after taking a stretch pass from Zuccarello before firing a quick wrist shot past Mrazek to give Europe the 3-2 win.

Draisaitl, who scored in the first game against USA, said he didn't really have a plan on the breakaway.

"I just decided to take a shot and hoped it went in."

After the game, many of Europe's players said they believe they're not the underdogs fans make them out to be.

“The U.S. won the 1980 Olympics, didn’t they?," Zuccarello said. "Miracles can happen.”

Europe's head coach Ralph Krueger was pleased with heading into the final game of the round robin with two wins to their credit.

"I've never experienced anything like this in my 25 years of coaching," Krueger said. "We're tight and we're not done."

With the game resulting in a three-point contest, the Americans were able to get a bit of help heading into crunch time. If they manage to beat Canada and the Czech's in regulation, they will have the three-way-tiebreaker over Europe in regulation wins, assuming Canada can beat Europe. The Czech Republic can not advance any further, but will still look to make it tougher for the Americans on Thursday evening, while Europe will look to stifle Canada's efforts on Wednesday night.

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