Denmark beats Czech Republic

15 May 2016Henrik Lundqvist»

Quarterfinal hopes are still alive for Denmark after beating undefeated Czech Republic in a shootout game.

Lars Eller, Nikolaj Ehlers and Nicklas Jensen all three scored against Czech goalie Dominik Furch in the shootout while the Czechs only managed to beat Sebastian Dahm once.

Dahm made 40 saves today and was the main reason why Denmark got this surprising win. The Czechs had won all games of the tournament so far. To reach the playoff stage Denmark needs to earn more points from the final game against Kazakhstan than Switzerland does against Czech Republic.

Dahm stopped almost everything today. Photo: Michal Eger

"It would be huge for Denmark to go to the quarters," said captain Morten Green to IIHF.com. "It’s only happened one time before in history, so if we can do it that would be huge."

Czech Republic outshot Denmark 41-21 and also got the lead. At 4:09 of the second period Tomas Plekanec swept the puck into the open net on the rebound after Roman Cervenka's hard shot hit the post.

Action behind the Danish net. Photo: Michal Eger

The Danish equalizer was scored on the powerplay early in the third period. Niklas Jensen took a shot that Frederik Storm deflected. Morten Madsen picked up the rebound and scored 1-1 behind Furch.

Denmark plays Kazakhstan on Monday while Czech Republic gets a day off before Tuesday's game against Switzerland. The quarterfinals are played on Thursday.

A Danish fan. Photo: Michal Eger