Czechs get away with a win against Latvia

30 Apr 2011 | Henrik Lundqvist, David Schlegel

Latvia had 2-2 after two periods against the 2010 World Champion Czech Republic in the first game of the tournament for the two, but the Czechs scored twice in the third period to win 4-2.

Patrik Elias beat Latvia's splendid goalkeeper Edgars Masalskis with a high wrist shot at 41:15 for a Czech 3-2 lead and when Roman Cervenka made it 4-2 two minutes before the end the Latvians had lost the game.

Latvia surprised the World Champion at 9:04 when Lauris Darzins scored the first goal of the game. The Czechs out-shot the Latvians 13-6 in the first period and tied the game at 17:47 when Tomas Rolinek managed to get the puck past Masalskis. "We started better, showed good passes and physical play but then we made a mistake during the shift and the play became more equal," said a Czech coach Alois Hadamczik.

Roberts Bukarts restored the Latvian lead at 1:21 of the middle period when the Latvians turned the play after a great Czech scoring chance. Patrik Elias tied the game 10 minutes later with a shot that Masalskis was not far from stopping. "It was very hard, but we knew that. We had to fight until the final minute. We have the hardest group. Latvians can beat anybody and Denmark showed its quality at last year`s championship," said Czech forward Martin Havlat who scored the winning goal of the game.

Herberts Vasiljevs and Marek Zidlicky
Photo: Roman Kucera

"We showed to ourselves we can play at the same level jike the Czechs, who became last year`s champions. I am so sad we have not win any point. I think we deserved it," said 20-years-old Roberts Bukarts, who scored at his first game ever at championships.

Czech defender Radek Martinek was injured when he was hit by Arturs Kulda in the first period and may miss the rest of the tournament. "What a pity. He is a great defenceman, whom I wanted to use for various situations. We will still wait if he can recover," said Hadamczik.

Czechs play the next game on Monday against Denmark. It will be the first game for Tomas Plekanec (Montreal) who will play in the first line with Jagr and Cervenka. Also defenceman Zbynek Michalek will play his first game at the championship.