Czechs beat Finns to bring six points to the qualifying round

05 May 2011 | Henrik Lundqvist

The Czech goalie Ondrej Pavelec had a great night when his team beat Finland 2-1 to win another 3 important points for the next stage of the tournament.

"Our goalie Pavelec had a fantastic game and probably we would not win without him", says Czech defender Lukas Krajicek.

Ondrej Pavelec allowed 1 of 32 shots, and when the Finnish players finally beat him it was too late. Only 19 seconds were remaining of the game.

The Czechs took the lead in the beginning of the second period when Finland’s Petteri Nokelainen spent time on the bench. Milan Michalek’s shot changed direction off a Finnish stick and beat Petri Vehanen, the goalie. After the goal, Finland put a lot of pressure around the Czech net but every attempt to score missed the target or was stopped by Pavelec.

Milan Michalek not allowed to get close to Petri Vehanen
Photo: Roman Kucera

Early in the third period Jaromir Jagr picked up the puck in front of the Finnish net and put it high behind Vehanen for 2-0.

Finland got two power play opportunities in the middle of the period but still couldn’t score. The goal came 19 seconds before the end when they had pulled the goalie Petri Vehanen from the net.

The Finnish coach Jukka Jalonen’s comment to the game: "It was a very good game and I think we had many scoring chances to score more than one goal. However, we were unable to shoot high on the power-plays."

"I think we saw very good game with the greatest possible effort. We had a great goaltending and we are happy that we won", says the Czech coach Alois Hadamczik.

Hadamczik at the press conference after the game
Photo: Roman Kucera

There was a foul by Tuomo Ruutu near the boards on Jaromir Jagr. Alois Hadamczik`s comment: "I think he should get game misconduct for what he did. It was from behind on our top star and I praise Tomas Plekanec for the revanche. The opposing team has to know that they cannot do that".

Czech Republic brings 6 points to the next stage, the qualifying round. Finland 3. There they will face Germany, Russia and Slovakia in the battle for the quarter final spots.

"We wanted to have six points and we have them", says Lukas Krajicek. "We took the pressure out of us. Finland was by far the best team we played here".