Czechs beat Artyukhin 3-2

"Artyukhin’s hits disconcerted us," Zbyněk Michálek, the brother of one of Artyukhin’s victims Michal Michálek said after the game. "We were provoked by his hits and it culminated in a few short handed plays, but the third period was our again, we played our game-style again and even if the Russians scored a goal for 3-2 we believed we will win this game."


Artyukhin and Krajicek
Photo: Roman Kucera

Michal Michálek and Karel Rachůnek were the most affected players of Artyukhin’s despite. All the show around Artyukhin started with a verbal shootout between him and Michal Michálek, a few tens of seconds Michálek hit Artyukhin with the puck and later Artyukhin gave him back everything.

The trouble was that Michálek was without the puck and he didn’t expect the crash. He was really shocked and didn’t finish the game.

The same result of the crash with Artyukhin met Karel Rachůnek a few minutes later. Rachůnek was shooting at Barulin’s net and immediately after the shot an Artyukhin’s knock-down came. Rachůnek lost his helmet while he was falling down and hit his head into the ice and also didn’t play anymore in this game.

The Czech team head-coach Alois Hadamczik was really upset because of Artyukhin’s play: "I have to admire the Czech Extraliga referees. We are often disappointed because of their verdicts but this can never happen in Extaliga. We was warned before the season that referees will have no mercy with similar head-fouls and the result is that Artyukhin threw three head-fouls." Hadamczik also announced that Team Czech Rep. will request an additional penalty for Artyukhin from the IIHF WC directorate.

Even M. Michálek and Rachůnek were both shocked and Rachůnek also suffered a blood injury in his head, the situation probably won’t be austere. Regarding to the Czech team doctor Radomír Holibka both players should be ready to play in the quarter final: "Michálek suffered a neck injury and he is under a physiotherapists’ care now. He looks quite good but we didn’t let him play preventively. Rachůnek has three new stitches on his head but he also should be ok to play. We will discuss with the coach if they can play tomorrow against Germany, but for the quarter finals they should be ready."

Probably all of it was a strategy of Team Russia from the second period. They were losing by two and had to do something about it. The reasons for the Russian two-goal deficit before the second period came during 61 seconds of the third. The first goal scored Jakub Voráček in the 15th minute when he finished Rachůnek’s and Škoula’s action. One minute later Jaromír Jágr scored his second goal in the tournament after a classic intersection on the right wing.

The aggressive play of Russia really worked-out. As Zbyněk Michálek told, the Czechs were disconcerted and refuged to fouls that culminated in the first short handed goal of Team Czech republic in the tournament: Tereshenko used a power play in the 32nd minute.

A disordered game-picture has mended again in the third period. The Czechs were the better team on the ice again and Plekanec scored goal no.3 from a penalty shot directed for Nikulin’s throwing a stick.


Plekanec, Ovechkin, Cervenka and Jagr
Photo: Roman Kucera

In the 56th minute Zaripov scored Russia’s contact goal, but equalizing the score was under Russia’s capability.

It also was the first game in the tournament for Alexander Ovechkin. "The Ovie" didn’t excite during this game. He shot a few times on Pavelec’s net but wasn’t able to prepare any goal-chance for himself or his team-mates. He finished the game with -1 because he was the player staying next to Jaromír Jágr on the start of a Jágr’s goal chance but showed just small interest to defend during Jágr’s sprint across the rink.

The best players of the game: Plekanec (CZE) – Tereschenko (RUS).

 

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