A day full of surprises

For 45 minutes it was a quite boring game between two teams that played tight and strong defensively. It took until six minutes into the third period for the first goal of the game to be scored and it was Zbynek Michalek who made it for the Czechs. A shot from the top of the faceoff circle that didn't look unstoppable but went in at the far post.

Before that teams had a couple of hot chances but both Simon Nielsen and Ondrej Pavelec who made his first appearance at the tournament, made some nice saves. After the Czech goal the opened up and the last was 15 minutes were more entertaining.

With seven minutes left Mikkel Bødker was given a empty net to score on with Pavelec down on the ice but some how the Dane managed to hit the post. Less then a minute later the Czechs had a puck in for 2-0 but the game was stopped just seconds before with a early whistle by the referee.

To the relief of Bødker Denmark would tie the game with four minutes left when the Morten Poulsen had an easy tap in at the far post after a nice set up by Kim Staal who went around the goal and served Poulsen.

"We knew we had a chance. I didn't think the Czechs had been impressive, especially on the physical game so we tried to beat them there", Denmark's captain Morten Green said.

The goal went to overtime were the Czechs got a golden chance to get the winner with a power play after dubious penalty on Jesper Jensen but the Danes made great effort of penalty killig to take the game to the game winning shots.

At the penalty shootout Denmark had the lead until the last shot that tied it and the procedure went on to see the Czechs win it after three goals against two with Zbynek Irgl scoring the winner.

Hudler was one of the scorers in the shootout. Photo: Michal Eger

"It's a pity. I think we did a good game", Kim Staal said after the game. Staal who was pleased with his teams performance so far and meant that with some luck they could have had more points "We have done three really good games and one good nervous game against Slovenia".

The Czechs didn't seem very pleased with the two points and still need many points to reach the quarter finals. "We have to skate more and play with more intensity", Petr Hubacek said and added about the future of the tournament "We need at least six or seven points and I hope we get them". His head coach was tired of excuses and said "We're missing emotions in the game we need heart in the play".