KAJOTbet Hockey Games - Day 1

27 Apr 2012 | Henrik Lundqvist

The last of the four Euro Hockey Tour tournaments of the season 2011/12, KAJOTbet Hockey Games, started yesterday with wins for Czech Republic and Finland.

Sweden - Czech Republic 3-5 (1-1, 2-2, 0-2)
Czech Republic opened their home tournament with a win against Sweden. The Czech's also took the lead of the total EHT stansings thanks to the win.

The game was tied 3-3 after two periods but at only 8 seconds of the third Tomas Plekanec scored 4-3. Eight seconds before the end Petr Prucha secured the win with an empty netter.

Sweden opened he goal scoring at 5:39 when Calle Järnkrok beat Jakub Stepanek. The followed three Czech goals: 1-1 in the last minute of the opening period by Ondrej Nemec, 2-1 by Jiri Novotny and 3-1 by Jiri Tlusty both came in the 4th minute of the second period. The Swedes tied the game with goals by Staffan Kronwall and Johan Harju in the second half of the period.

Russia - Finland 0-2 (0-0, 0-1, 0-1)
In Saint Petersburg Finland beat Russia 2-0. Kari Lehtonen of Dallas Stars made 31 saves to earn a shut-out. Mikko Mäenpää scored the game-winning 1-0 goal on a powerplay at 32:30. Antti Pihlström added an empty netter 16 seconds before the buzzer.

"I am very pleased with our performance today. We were ready from the start", says Finnish coach Jukka Jalonen to Canal+. "To not allow any goals against Russia in Russia is a good thing".

Stats and standings at http://eurohockey.com/league/1141-euro-hockey-tour.html.