Czechs come from behind for important victory

The Czech Republic will now head into their final game with some momentum after registering their first win of the 2018 World Junior A Challenge, beating Canada West 5-4 in the shootout after erasing multiple deficits on Thursday.

The game started with a great pace, with the Czechs looking to put pressure on Canada East by winning tonight and forcing their opponents to win tomorrow. At 1:16, Zdenek Sedlak would score from close range after Jan Bambula skated around the net with the puck, with Sedlak sending a quick wrist shot past Matthew Radomsky to make it 1-0 early.

But at 4:20, their lead would be erased. Canada West would make it 1-1 after Alex Newhook stole the puck in the neutral zone and saw the puck bounce around to a variety of different players. Harrison Blaisdell would knock in a shot originally taken by Ethan Leyh and pushed it over the goal line after Tomas Vomacka originally made the save, but he allowed the puck to just get past him for the goal.

With just over a minute remaining in the opening frame, Canada found themselves up by a goal. Alex Campbell would find Riley Hughes standing to the right of the Czech net after a faceoff, with Hughes quickly sending a fast wrist shot past Vomacka after banking the puck off the post to make it 2-1 heading into the intermission.

Vomacka would only stay in the net for 31 seconds in the second period after Canada took a two-goal advantage. Dylan Holloway did a good job of getting in front of the net and trying to backhand in close, but Winnipeg Jets prospect Austin Wong pinched in and tapped the puck past Vomacka, ending his night in favour of Daniel Dvorak.

The Czechs would score with less than a minute to go in the middle stanza to give them some momentum. Jan Bambula would get one on the power play after beating Ranomsky with a powerful, low-angle shot, giving Canada West a run for their money.

The two nations then traded goals early in the third. At 6:27 on the power play, Blaisdell would get his second goal of the night after the puck landed on his stick just in front after Hughes and Campbell did a good job of moving the puck, with Blaisdell just quick backhanding it past Dvorak to make it 4-2.

The Czechs would answer with two of their own to tie it up. At 7:16, Vojtek Strondala, who was speared earlier in the game, charged in front of the net, avoiding one hit before getting knocked down, but not until he had already pushed the puck over the line to make it 4-3. 59 seconds later, Jan Kern would somehow knock in the puck after a bit of confusion as to where the disk was, tying the game up once again.

The game would require overtime to decide a victor, and Strondala would come up huge. After the two teams scored earlier in the shootout, Strondala would enter the zone slowly before sending a wrist shot between the legs of Radomsky to win the game for the Czechs.

While Canada West's round robin is complete, the Czechs will look for a spot in the quarter-finals when they face off against Canada East on Friday. The Czechs can clinch a spot if the game heads to overtime, while Canada East must win in regulation to advance.

Follow me on Twitter, @StevenEllisNHL.

 

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