Swedish shootout win over Czech Republic

Each of the two teams came out victorious out of their respective openers, Sweden beat its southern rival from Denmark with ease 3-0 and the Czechs defeated their eastern neighbors from Slovakia in overtime. Games between the Czechs and Sweden, however, always have a special element in them. 

This time, there was no waiting for anything as the score was opened just eight seconds in. Ondřej Němec sprung Tomáš Hertl with a highlight-reel pass and the San Jose Sharks rookie finished it off with a great shot past goaltender Anders Nilsson. The Chizhovka-Arena erupted immediately as most of the present fans were from the Central European country and there weren't many Swedish fans in attendance.

Tomas Hertl and Mattias Ekholm
Photo: Roman Kucera

Team Sweden, however, swung the momentum soon and capitalized with Oscar Moller taking advantage of a great screen in front of Alexander Salák, the star KHL goaltender for the Czech Republic. While the Czechs had the momentum early on and led 5-1 on shots, the Swedes managed to even up the tempo and the majority of the opening period was a tight game.

The Czechs managed to come back up ahead before the end of the frame. Jiří Hudler was the clutch on a powerplay late in the first as he one-timed home a shot from point-blank range. 2-1 was the score after twenty and it looked like a huge battle was in store for all the fans and viewers.

The second period pretty much resembled the first one as the Czech team controlled the flow early on and again was able to score a goal thanks to that, even though it didn't happen as quickly as in the opening frame. Traffic in front by Extraliga forward Martin Zaťovič paid off with top-scoring blueliner Ondřej Němec ripping one from the blue line and it went all the way in past Nilsson and into the back of the net.

Minutes later, a Swedish powerplay caused a lot of trouble in the Czech zone and after some time, it wasn't just trouble for the Czech team, but also a goal in their net. Oscar Moller let one fly from the blue line and thanks to a screen in front by Mikael Backlund and a couple of more players, the puck got past Salák to cut the lead in half. 

Team Czech Republic was a much more dominant force in the second than it was in the first, outshooting the Swedes by quite a margin. And again, they were looking for another great finish to the period, but didn't get it with Nilsson stopping all but one in the second frame.

More of the same was ahead of the fans during the third period. Both Team Sweden and their opposition played impressive hockey and it looked like both deserved a win. And that's the way the game went with Joakim Lindstrom finding the back of the wide-open net on a man-advantage to tie things up halfway through the frame.

Both teams were looking to clinch the win in regulation and the Czechs came pretty close a couple of times. Nilsson and Salák both stayed perfect for not just the rest of the third, but also the entire five minutes of OT.

And as that settled nothing, shootout had to decide the winner and Sweden took it. Linus Klasen opened the scoring with Jakub Klepiš making it 1-1 immediately, but than Joakim Lindström scored the game winner as Roman Červenka wasn't able to respond the way he needed. Sweden gets two points and goes to the second place in standings, Czech get one and are fifth.

"There was a great atmosphere, a lot of Czechs in the building, and it was a fun game to play", says Sweden's Mikael Backlund. 

"There are no excuses, we need to work on things. The penalty kill obviously isn't working properly", said Němec tp Eurohockey after the game. 

Backlund wants even more from his team: "We've won two games already, but we can still get better."

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