USA moves on despite strong effort by Czech goalie

In the final game of action at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria, British Columbia, the United States have eliminated the Czech Republic with a 3-1 victory to advance to the semifinals.

With the win, the Americans will play the winner of Russia vs Slovakia on Friday afternoon in Vancouver.

After a few penalties for the Czechs early in the game, the Americans finally found themselves generating some solid momentum midway through the first, scoring the first goal at 12:12. Jack Hughes, who missed most of the round robin with an undisclosed injury, stole the puck off of a Czech defender and took the puck down the ice. Noah Cates then would take the pass and would make a quick move on Lukas Dostal, giving the Americans the early advantage.

At 26:10, the Americans tied it up. This time, Jason Robertson would set up Josh Norris on the rush by himself. Norris made no mistake beating Dostal glove side, doubling up USA's advantage.

But the Czechs got an incredible performance from Dostal despite the two goals against, stopping 39 shots in an onslaught of opportunities by the Americans. At 51:29 on the power play, the Czechs wold Martin Necas would find Martin Kaut in the slot, with the Colorado Avalanche prospect beating Cayden Primeau to make it 2-1. They weren’t able to turn their game around, however, with Alexander Chmelevski scoring in the final minute on the empty net to win the game for the Americans by a score of 3-1.

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