Another Czech collapse

Just like against Sweden the Czech defense was weak again. Välivaara came undefended in front of Schwarz and took a precise shot to make it 1-0. On the other end of the ice Rachunek and then Cervenka had nice chances, the Czechs tried hard, but Rämö was outstanding.

Rämö had a good game in the Finnish net. Photo: Roman Kucera

Finland could not score against the Russians, but the Finnish attackers exploded when the game turned into its second half. Immonen, and 16 seconds later Laine, beat Schwarz twice and broke the Czechs. When Lahti showed a minute later how easy the scoring can be, Czech coach Hadamczik took time out and replaced Schwarz by Stepanek.

The Finnish fans were excited, and the almost sold-out arena showed five waves in a row.

"We did many stupid mistakes and it is hard to react when it is 0-4," said Jan Marek. "I think we played like last 10 minutes against Sweden," said Martin Skoula who recalled the Czech collapse against Sweden on Thursday.

The Czechs changed their lines into the third period, but continued being unable to beat the Finnish defense. Rämö had only one hard save against Marek. On the other side of the ice, Lahti added one more goal. The Czechs wanted to avoid a debacle and concentrated on their defence at the end of the game.

"We were not playing very well in the first half of the game but then we scored three goals and decided the game. The final score is cruel
for the Czechs," said Teemu Laine.

Alois Hadamczik (head coach of the Czech Republic): "I think we can play much better with these players. It is a new season and we have to start to be responsible. When you make such mistakes, no system can work. You do not see such mistakes in Tipsport extraliga. Every player has to think what should be done better to avoid such a failure like today."

Jukka Jalonen (head coach of Finland): "Before we scored our second goal, Czechs were a better team. The key point was, that we were able to score three fast goals in the middle of the game. We played carefully in the 3rd period and had a good penalty killing."

Czech Republic - Finland 0:5 (0:1, 0:3, 0:1)

Goals and Assists: 4. Välivaara (Aaltonen, Kapanen), 30. Immonen (Lahterä), 30. Laine (Välivaara, Lehterä), 31. Lahti(Kontiola), 51. Lahti (Väänänen, Kontiola).

Referees: Claesson, Sjöberg - Sormunen, Suoraniemi.

Penalties: 1:3.

Attendance:12847.

shots on goal: 25:42.

Finland: Rämö - Hietanen, Puistola, Niskala, Välivaara, Jaakola, Väänän, Kukkonen, Uusitalo - Aaltonen, Kapanen, Peltonen -Lehterä, Immonen, Laine - Pihlström, Kontiola, Lahti - Petrell, Lindgren, Komarov - Lehtonen.

Czech Republic: Schwarz (31. Štepánek) - Mojžíš, Škoula, Krajíček, Novák, Čáslava, Němec, Lojel, Gřegořek - Červenka, Kreps, Klepiš - Hubáček, Novotný, Kašpar - Růžička, Vašíček, Kvapil - Rachůnek, Marek, Klimek - Gulaš.

 

 

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