EHT: Czech Hockey Games open with home wins

25 Apr 2013 | Henrik Lundqvist

The last of the four Euro Hockey Tour tournaments started today. Czech Republic beat Finland in Brno while Sweden got a rare win against Russia in Jönköping.

Finland - Czech Republic 2-3

The Czechs got a good start to the home tournament with a 3-2 win over the Finnish team. With the win they are now tie leader with Russia in the total EHT standings.

Ville Viitaluoma had tied the game at two for Finland with a deflection but only 1:16 later, at 46:31, Zbynek Irgl scored the winning goal.

The first period was scoreless but six minutes into the second Czech Republic scored two goals within a minute. Petr Hubacek 1-0 after a poor Finnish shift change and Petr Tenkrat 2-0 when the defending Finnish fourth line was confused. Shortly after Janne Pesonen got the first Finnish goal nicely set up by Juhamatti Aaltonen.

Sweden - Russia 4-2

Sweden doesn't often beat Russia in EHT but today in Jönköping they got a 4-2 win. The home team's Nicklas Danielsson scored the only goal of the first period with a powerful shot from the blue line on the first man advantage of the game.

In the first half of the second period Sweden scored three more goals to get a 4-0 lead. Niklas Persson scored 2-0 on the power play. Dick Axelsson and Linus Omark then scored on break-away opportunities. After the fourth goal Russia switched goalies. Konstantin Barulin out - Vasily Koshechkin in.

Sergei Mozyakin scored Russia's first goal at 32:42 on a power play and then assisted to Alexander Svitov's 4-2 goal. He leads the EHT in both goals (5) and points (10).

In the third period chasing Russia only managed to fire four shots and the game ended with a 4-2 win for Sweden, who still is far behind the other teams in the EHT standings.