A Czech surprise probably sends USA out of the playoff round

Two years ago the US team won gold at U18 World Juniors, now they have to rely on Denmark to beat Finland to even get to playoff round, instead they will probably have to play in the relegation round.

Things started good for the USA as T.J. Tynan gave the US the lead on a power play following an early five minute penalty on Petr Straka for boarding after a violent tackle on Derek Forbort who left the game with a leg injury.

USA continued the dominate the period and had 18-6 in shots on goal but somehow the Czhecs managed to get a tie out of the period as Tomas Filippi poked in a rebound of his own shot, a bad play by the US goalie Campbell.

In the second the USA got another play goal when Bill Arnold suddenly got an open net. But the Czhecs played a more even game in this period and three minutes later the game was tied as Tomas Hertl picked up a bad pass from Jon Merrill and scored with a great backhand shot.

In the third the Czechs had 21 shots on goal but failed to beat the brillant Petr Mrazek who got help from the crossbar on a shot from J.T. Miller. Mrazek also saved a penalty shot from Josh Archibald halfway through the period. Half a minute later the Czechs called a time out which turned out to be lucky as the Petr Holik scored what turned out to be the game winning goal just another half minute later.

Jiri Sekac made a good rush and had attempt on goal and Holik scored on the rebound. Holik and Filippi would both be double goal scorers as Filippi first made it 4-2 and Holik finished the scoring with an empty netter.

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