Czech’s Stun Canada West to Win Quarter-Final Contest

15 Dec 2016Steven Ellis»

A year after battling in the fifth place game, the Czech Republic will look to win their first ever medal at the World Junior A Challenge thanks to a 4-3 shootout victory over Canada West in a thrilling Wednesday night showdown.

Despite coming in as the underdog, a pair of goals in the first period gave the eventual winners the 2-0 lead after the first period. Seven minutes in, Radovan Pavlik buried his own rebound in to make it 1-0, only to have Daniel Kurovsky pot a power-play goal four minutes later.

Canada couldn't score until the third period, but a string of penalties from the Czech's made things easier for them. Just 14 seconds into the first, Canadian star Cale Makar scored on the power-play to cut the lead by one. Then just 22 seconds later, Makar set up Jordan Kawaguchi for the tying goal, changing the course of the game before the third period really got started.

Who was going to break the lead? Canada would at the 14:44 mark of the game. Carter Turnbull, one of Canada's best players throughout the tournament, buried home a rebound from a Kawaguchi shot, taking the 3-2 lead late in the game.

Canada looked good enough to hold on to the game, but their dreams were shattered with a second and a half left in the game. Just before the buzzer was beaten, Tomas Havranek scored off of a faceoff to force the game into extra time, something Canada was not looking forward too.

After the Czech's beat the Americans in a 1-0 shocker in the round robin, it was no secret that the team was ready to pull off another miracle upset. Canada West has typically done very well at this tournament, winning the gold last year, while the Czech's have never had any success throughout the years. That didn't stop Kristian Reichel from scoring in the shootout, scoring the only goal in the one-on-one competition to win the game and eliminate Team Canada West from the World Junior A Challenge.

With the win, the Czech's will look to take revenge on Canada East in the late semi-final game on Thursday, just days after losing 4-1 to open up the tournament. The win comes months after the Czech's won the 2016 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, a tournament that Canada had won eight years in a row prior.

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