Americans start strong vs Czechs to begin title defence

26 Dec 2013 | Derek O’Brien

Team USA got off to the right start in defence of their World Junior Championship. They exploded out of the gate against the Czech Republic, scoring twice in the first two minutes, then cruised to a 5-1.

The Czechs got themselves into penalty trouble early, and the Americans made them pay dearly. Patrik Marcel was called for hooking just 32 seconds in, and then with a second penalty on delay to Petr Šidlík, Riley Barber one-timed a pass from behind the net to open the scoring at 1:21. Remaining on the power play, Will Barber made it 2-0 from a bad angle -- his shot from the left-wing boards beat Daniel Dolejš along the ice between his skate and the near post.

The Americans would only get one more power play in the game -- and that didn't come until the last minute -- so they finish their first game an impressive 2-for-3 for 67 percent.

The Czechs knew they were in a deep hole at this point, and tried to create some offence, but Jon Gillies made some big saves to keep his team up by two goals for the rest of the period -- he would stop 23 of 24 shots in the game. At the other end, Dolejš recovered from a shaky start and played well the rest of the way, stopping 28 of 33 in total.

The Americans added two more goals in the second period. Hudson Fasching scored on a rebound just shy of the game's halfway point, and then Jacob Slavin tapped in a bouncing puck at the side of the crease to make it 4-0 late in the middle frame.

The Czechs finally got on the board in the 46th minute on the power play, as the puck came to Michal Plutnar and he had time to place a wrister inside the post before anyone could get to him. The Czechs were 1-for-2 with the man advantage in the game.

With just over two minutes to play and the outcome long since decided, Vince Hinostroza scored the fifth American goal, who was in alone on Dolejš and beat him on the backhand.

In a balanced attack, the Americans got goals from five different players and nobody recorded more than one point in the game. Both teams now get a day off before returning to action on Saturday -- first the Americans face Slovakia, who begin their tournament on Friday, and then the Czechs face Canada, who opened with a 7-2 win over Germany.