Forget the preliminary round, that was so last year.
Forget the Latvians, the dumb penalties, the goal posts, hot opposing goalies, only 10 goals scored in 4 games and their questionable power play. They don’t matter now.
Go ahead, you can think about the Canadian domination in not allowing any goals during 5 on 5 play, our goaltender, our size and depth. It still doesn’t matter all that much. Four of these teams will be on an airplane soon enough.
Tonight’s quarter final match up between Czechia and Canada will be the third win or go home game between these nations in a row. The Czechs are the defending champions, they beat Canada in last year’s quarters and have played big and strong thus far. Leaf prospect, 18 year old C/W Miroslav Holinka of the Oshawa Generals suited up tonight for his home country. He 6’1”, weighs in at 185 and wore number 26.
A high event first period ended with Czech captain Sale putting in his second of the game, back door with 2.1 seconds left. That followed a first minute (:43 seconds) opening goal by Czechia that quieted the crowd bigtime. That was Canada’s first 5 on 5 goal allowed. The Czech’s took a dumb penalty off a useless offside call, only to be followed by Canada heading to the box for a love tap off a Czech ankle seconds later. The ensuing 4 on 4 was highly entertaining with dangerous scoring chances exchanged. Then, as almost inevitable, a mid-ice collision caused a Canadian defender to be given 5 and a game for kneeing. That was Canada’s tournament leading 22nd time playing shorthanded. The only good came was when Brayden Yager took a great lead pass in all alone only to have 6’6” Czech goalie Adam Verchek stone him. Yager recovered the rebound and set up Tanner Howe to tie the game up.
A strong effort from both squads led to end-to-end action in the second. The play seemed to open up to a more “run and gun” style. Coach Cameron (finally) moved Gavin McKenna up with Calum Ritchie and Easton Cowan early in the frame and they showed that all important “MO” on almost every shift. A Czech penalty with 3:04 left allowed Porter Martone to roof a beauty tip to get Canada back in it 3 to 2.
Somebody lit the Canadian player’s hair on fire in the intermission. With a full court press, they overwhelmed their opponent. They had been outshot 20-18 after two but with good, old fashioned Canadian hockey they added big pressure. Chance after chance you could sense the Czechs squeezing the sweat right out of their sticks. Canada took over the SOG in a huge way – in fact the Europeans did not have a shot on goal in the first 10 minutes. The Canucks lost a challenge on a goalie interference goal at 10:20 and had to play short handed AGAIN. Deservedly, Nadeau tied it up for the home squad with 4:18 left. The crowd almost blew the roof off. One of our steadiest and most popular d-men Gibson was sent off for 2 minutes. Guess what – PPG with :39 seconds left.
HOPPER NOTES: This will be final report for this year’s tournament because frankly I couldn’t give a rat’s ass how it turns out…part of me wants to go with the “we got jobbed by the refs” routine but it was may more than that…let’s just hope some bleeding heart doesn’t call for another inquest ! …loved the feedback online and on the phone…hope you all enjoyed the ride…CHEERS !