Czechs and USA meet in U18 Final

27 Apr 2014 | Andreas Reiner

With an overtime win the Czechs advance to the Final for the first time ever while the United States beat Sweden 4:1.

In the first Semifinal the score was tight for 2 periods before the Americans executed their game and scored two unanswered goals in period 3. Captain Gustav Franzen scored the opening goal after 3 minutes but only 32 seconds later Auston Matthews tied the game. Ryan Hitchcock delivered the 2nd goal for the Americans in period two. Sweden was unable to answer when Dylan Larkin in the 49th minute and Jack Eichel with an empty netter in the last minute of the game handed the Swedes their only second loss and qualified for the Final for the 10th time.

Game two of the day between the Czech Republic and Canada looked like the Eastern Europeans would run down the Canucks as Michael Spacek after just a minute and 15 second opened the score and his colleagues Jakub Vrana in the 28th minute and just 5 minutes later Jiri Smejkal made it 3:0. But the Canadians hadn't given up yet. 35 minutes were played as Matt Barzal started a catch up race, scoring the first goal for Canada. Joseph Hicketts scored the second goal just 5 minutes into the third period and Daniel Audette shot the game tying goal just 7 minutes before the end of regulation. An overtime (and eventual Shootout) would have to decide the second Finalist. David Pastrnak was benched with 2 minutes played but a time out by Canadian Head Coach Kevin Dineen wasn't fruitful and so the game went on when in the 67th minute David Kase scored the unassisted game winning goal. With that, the Czech Republic qualify for the U18 Final for the first time in History and will play the Record World Champion USA who lead the table with 7 Gold medals, followed by Russia and Canada with 3 Gold each.

A reason that Canada wasn't able to step forward today and in the history of the U18 in general may be that many Junior Leagues in Canada are in their Playoffs and therefore can't provide a Team with their strongest athletes. But this shouldn't diminish the performance by the Czechs who've played an enormous Tournament, winning all games, except for their loss the States in the preliminary round with 3:0.

Canada and Sweden will meet in the Bronze medal game in the afternoon and the Czechs will play USA in the Gold medal game in the evening.

Meanwhile Germany won their second game against Denmark and will remain in the Elite Group while Denmark will change seats with promoted Team Latvia.