Czechs get away with a win against Latvia

Patrik Elias beat Latvia's splendid goalkeeper Edgars Masalskis with a high wrist shot at 41:15 for a Czech 3-2 lead and when Roman Cervenka made it 4-2 two minutes before the end the Latvians had lost the game.

Latvia surprised the World Champion at 9:04 when Lauris Darzins scored the first goal of the game. The Czechs out-shot the Latvians 13-6 in the first period and tied the game at 17:47 when Tomas Rolinek managed to get the puck past Masalskis. "We started better, showed good passes and physical play but then we made a mistake during the shift and the play became more equal," said a Czech coach Alois Hadamczik.

Roberts Bukarts restored the Latvian lead at 1:21 of the middle period when the Latvians turned the play after a great Czech scoring chance. Patrik Elias tied the game 10 minutes later with a shot that Masalskis was not far from stopping. "It was very hard, but we knew that. We had to fight until the final minute. We have the hardest group. Latvians can beat anybody and Denmark showed its quality at last year`s championship," said Czech forward Martin Havlat who scored the winning goal of the game.

 

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