Canada Finishes Czech’s in Quarter-Final Battle

Canada will play in the semi-finals against Sweden on Wednesday evening thanks to a 5-3 victory in a tough battle against the Czech Republic.

The Czech's finished the first period by scoring one of the weirdest goals you'll see in hockey. At 16:49, Canadian-born and former Canadian Pacific player Adam Musil banked the puck off of a ref in the slot and landed back near the stick of David Kase. Kase rushed into the slot and sniped the puck past an unsuspecting Connor Ingram to make it 1-0 Czech Republic.

Canada, however, would put up a goal of their own early in the second to tie the game. Mathieu Joseph started the play off at the blue line by sending the puck to Mitchell Stephens along the boards. Stephens, who returned from injury earlier in the tournament, sent the puck to Blake Speers in front, who tipped in the play to make it 1-1.

Then, Canada scored right off the faceoff to make it 2-1 at 27:27 thanks to a goal by #27. After Anthony Cirelli won the draw, Stephens shot the puck at the left wing spot and beat Jakub Skarek for the 2-1 goal.

The lead was short-lived, however. Just over a minute later, Kelowna Rockets forward Tomas Soustal made it 2-2 after taking the puck into the zone and beating Ingram glove side to knot it up once again after losing all of their momentum.

Canada would steal the lead back before the end of the second. At 33:32, Stephens sent the puck to Thomas Chabot, who used his skilled moves to dance around a fallen Czech defender and fired it past Skarek to make it 3-2 for the Canadians in a tight, exciting contest.

At 3:18 in the third, the Canadians scored again. Nicholas Roy made a great pass to Julien Gauthier in front of the net, who shot top corner after standing in all alone and not worrying about the defensemen in front.

But the scoring see-saw battle continued. Simon Stransky would bring the Czech's within a goal after picking up a rebound to the right of the Canadian net to make it 4-3.

Canada, however, was just too strong to let the game go away. At 46:37, Kale Clague's shot was stopped by Skarek, only to have Gauthier find the puck once again. Gauthier had a wide-open cage to put the puck in the net, giving Canada the 5-3 lead late in the battle.

With the win, Canada will meet up with Sweden at 7:30 PM for the second semi-final game on Wednesday night.

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Photo from Steven Ellis/EuroHockey.com

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