<div align="center">The Czech Republic’s Surprising IIHF Performance
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Czechoslovakia made on an incredible run to the Gold Medal match where they fell to the tournament favorite German side. The Czech’s have built a quality program over recent campaigns but few expected such a deep run. Here is an account of their games during their playoff run.

The Quarter Finals

Czechoslovakia vs United Kingdom

The Czech’s stumbled out of the block in round robin finishing 4th in Group A, which featured strong nations such as Germany, USA and Russia. This meant they would face the winner of Group B the United Kingdom, who heading into the tournament were ranked 7th.

The game would be a close but back and forth affair with shot totals ending up 25-24 in favor of Great Britain. However the Czech’s got half their shots in the 2nd period outshooting the UK 12-1 in the frame while the UK ran over the Czech’s in the first and final frames by a combined 24-12 shot attempts. Despite their valiant third period effort the UK came up short and Czechoslovakia pulled off the upset with a 2-0 win. Here are the accounts of the two goals.

The UK was playing from behind early thanks to a Barak Obrana goal at 8:14 in the first period. Following a lack luster power play by the Czech’s where Zallerras Szlerchek managed a single shot, which Michael McFadden promptly ate without a rebound; the Czech’s run offside at 7:09. Schnitinfritz Jagr won the ensuing faceoff against Nicholas Pederson but Pedersen retrieved the puck only to be run into the ground by Jagr. Taro Eichelele then gets a shot a minute later at 8:12 which was blocked by Fife Gibbs. The UK was unable to recover and Barak Obrana got the opening goal. This is a strong depth goal by the Czech’s produced by the third line and third pairing thanks to Obrana pinching down from the point.

The next goal came at 9:49 in the second period thanks again to the Czech’s third line. This play starts in the Czech zone with a UK scoring chance. After winning a faceoff following an offside Randy Randleman gets the puck to Bryce Collins. Randleman crashes the net hard and deflects Collins’s shot off the post. The puck falls to Wendall Luna, the Czech third pairing d-man, who throws it up the wing to Taro Eichelele. Now it is a breakout with Eichelele and Dickie Pecker pushing the pace. Eichelele throws the puck over to Pecker who makes no mistake and buries it into the net. This makes it 2-0 and would be the final goal of the game.

Overall both goalies performed well with the Czech’s Christoffer Bjornsson taking the shutout and 1st star of the game honors. The UK did play well and managed to keep the more dangerous Czech threats off the score board. Maybe McFadden should have stopped Pecker or recovered quicker to save the Obrana shot but both seemed to be good hockey goals and a .917 save percentage is solid enough in the SHL.

Semi Finals
Czechoslovakia vs United States of America

The USA headed into the tournament as favorites ranked 1st in the world. THey finished 2nd in Group A, seven points ahead of the Czechs, and beat the Latvians 5-3 in an exciting quarter final matchup. Unfortunately for them Bjornsson would have a career game and stop a ridiculous 42 of 43 shots to pull the Czechs to the final versus Germany.

The Czechs would open the scoring early with some strong play. At 1:01 in the first Evandrus Jesster of the USA would be hit by Pierre-Luc Laflamme and would lose the puck. Zallerras Szlerchek would pick up the puck and throw it ahead to Cameron Urbowicz who’d take a shot at 1:22. Laflamme had quickly made his way to the front of the net and deflect the puck into the back of the net. This is a tough go for USA. Goalies cannot be expected to stop every deflection especially not against top flight talent early in the game before they are settled in.

USA managed to tie up the game before the end of the 1st with a nice power play goal. At 8:43 Christ Crutchfield was hit off the puck by Slappy McDoodle in the Czech end. An American skater picks up the puck but the persistent McDoodle gives up a hooking penalty trying to prevent him from getting to a prime scoring spot. At 9:55 Geoffrey Allen wins a faceoff in the USA end, after Tim Buckner iced the puck on a power play. The details of the play aren’t available to us but it looks as if Jack Burton received the puck on the draw throwing it to his outlet Luke Fleming. Fleming gets the puck to Scott Robertson who shots and scores. There is no detail on how the play developed but power play goals happen and it is now a 1-1 game.

The final goal of the game comes at in the dying seconds of the 2nd period. Tim Bucker gets a holding penalty at 19:27 putting the Czechs on the power play with an offensive zone faceoff. Schnitinfriz Jagr steps out and beats Alex Mack on the draw. The play develops leading to a Zallerras Szlerchek point shot at 19:51. Crutchfield gets in the way; Patrick Satan picks up the puck and takes a shot at 19:52, which is deflected wide by Pierre-Luc Laflamme. Jagr wins the battle in the corner at 19:55 fights his way to the front of the net and scores with only five seconds left in the second!

To highlight Christoffer Bjornsson’s performance let’s look at the play between 7:21 and 8:42 of the 3rd period. The play starts with Nathan Russel winning a defensive zone draw. The play leads to Crutchfield taking a shot at 7:46 which is stopped by Bjornsson but there is a rebound. In a span of 31 seconds following that shot 5 American players shoot wide of the net without a Czech player getting the puck. Then at 8:21 Fleming takes a shot which Allen deflects into Bjornsson who can finally settle the play. Unfortunately the Czechs lose the next draw meaning Jack Burton gets a shot which Bjornsson gets a pad on but Buckner is there for the rebound. Bjornsson saves and covers the puck. After this Allen comes out and wins the next faceoff to Luke Fleming who takes another shot, which Bjornsson saves without a rebound. Allen actually wins the next draw as well but the Czechs manage to finally clear it after being completely clueless for the past minute of play.

The Final
Czechoslovakia vs Germany
Germany were ranked fourth coming into the tournament, won Group A where they beat the Czechs in the two opening games of the tournament. They went on to shut out both Austria and Russia beating them by a combined 5-0. Now they come into the final against a Czech team who was just outshot 43-19. Few held any hope for the Czechs.

The game started out well for Germany ending the first up 2-0. The third went the way of the Czechs who managed to tie it up thanks to goals from Urbowicz and Krysztof Kowalski making it 2-2. In the final frame the Czechs took the lead due to a power play goal from Kornel Kasparek assisted by Ty Justice and Pierre-Luc Laflamme. Then Germany went on a streak scoring three goals in just over a minute before finishing it up with a sixth goal from Nikolaus Scholz at 18:01. Overall the Czech’s played well outshooting Germany 34-24 but the third line and third pairing, heros of the quarterfinals, were completely out matched and finished the game an abysmal combined -17, the rest of the Czechs were a combined +2.

Overall this was a great tournament for the Czechs. While the third line, third pairing and Bjornsson did not have strong performances in the final… without these men the Czechs would never have reached this stage. Everyone should be proud of their performance, it is not every day a 9th ranked team reaches the finals of the World Championships.

Words: 1370

Great write-up. We're all really proud of the Czech performance this tournament.

We started off slow and different lines produced each game but hopefully this is a sign of greater depth for the national team and maybe even becoming a consistent power.

Either way, the $1m is a nice bonus.

The Czech run was amazing and fun. Great write up


I hope im still assistant captain next ssn

https://simulationhockey.com/showthread.php?tid=130731

Huge accomplishment for having essentially no shot at even making medal round w 2 games left... then to get silver!

Pretty decent year I'd say

i'll playwith anyone
playing with my teammates is part of the intangibles I bring to the table
i play with them a lot.
they didn't like it at first
but after a while, it just felt normal

4-0 and 0-4 aren't that different tbh

FIRE EGGY
HIRE ARTY