EHT: Advantage Czech Republic after shoot-out win against Sweden

21 Dec 2013 | Henrik Lundqvist

The Czechs lead Channel One Cup in Sochi after two days. Today the Swedes were defeated in a close game. It was all decided in the shootout where Pavel Nedved and Roman Cervenka scored for Czech Republic.

It looked like Sweden could get away with a win. In that case all teams of Channel One Cup would have been tied with three points with one game day remaining. But the Czechs wanted more than that.

Sweden got the 1-0 lead in the second period and the lead lasted until eight minutes remained of period three. Robert Kousal tied the game on a quick break-away beautifully set up by Ondrej Nemec.

The Czechs looked tired in the beginning of the game when Sweden created a few good chances to score. The last six minutes of the first period the Czechs got things going and especially the experienced first line Nedved-Hlinka-Cervenka was good tonight.

Both goalies - Henrik Karlsson in Sweden and Alexander Salak in Czech Republic played great and they kept the game scoreless for 35 minutes. It was Sweden who took the lead. Mikael Johansson scored his first goal for Sweden in his fifth international game with a one-timer during a Swedish power-play.

The Czechs finally beat Karlsson at 51:53 when Kousal put the puck close to the post with a hard shot on a quick counter-attack.

In the shootout both teams failed to score in the first round. Then Nedved puts it high behind Karlsson. Linus Klasen took Salak for a ride with a spectacular penalty shot to tie it. Cervenka scored a goal similar to Nedved's and then Thuresson failed to beat Salak and the Czechs got away with two points.

Tomorrow Czech Republic will play Russia and one point will be enough for the tournament win. Sweden will play Finland.