It’s my new career high, smiled Czech goalie Pöpperle

18 Dec 2011 | David Schlegel

He has not played at the international level for five years, making his comeback against the Finns at the Channel One Cup in Moscow. It was a spectacular performance from his side, as he allowed just one goal and had a big part in a convincing 5-1 Czech victory. He was also selected as the Czech player of the game.

"I felt well since the game started and I concentrated all the way. We managed to win so it was excellent," smiled Tomáš Pöperle, goalie for HC Sparta Praha, after the game.

The 27-year-old goalie returned to the national team after five years. In 2006, he made his debut against Russia and allowed two goals during a seven-minute span, after which he was benched and did not play again until Saturday. This time he was much more successful.

"After the first eight minutes of play, I said to myself I reached my new career high. The game went well all the way and ended with a deserved victory, which is great," said Pöpperle, who was beaten only by Harri Pesonen on the power play.

"He made a very good move, which I did not expect. Finally, he scored into a wide open net; he did it very well. He had enough time to do so, I need to watch it on the video one more time to find out what I should have done better," added Pöpperle, who has a German title with Eisbären Berlin from the past.

Pesonen cut the Czech lead to 2-1, but then the Czechs scored while shorthanded. The Finns then had a long five-on-three advantage. Was Pöpperle afraid of a Finnish comeback one more time?

"To be honest, no. We took a lot of penalties in the second period, so the Finnish goal could have come whenever, but my mates fantastically blocked the shots and killed the crucial penalties. That was the deciding moment of the game," bowed Pöpperle.

"The self-sacrifice of our players in the three-on-five situation, when they blocked three shots in a row, was incredible. The blocking of the shots is very advantageous also for our defencemen. The puck does not deflect anywhere near the goal, which helps them a lot. I think all these small things make altogether one great team. It also fires up the other guys and the play of the whole team improves. We all worked very hard today and we are very happy that we were rewarded with a victory."

The Finns started quite well, but worsened as the play went by. The Czechs dominated the second half of the game. "We should still keep in mind that the Finns are the world champions from Bratislava. We scored two important goals in the first period and had the game under control all the time," summarized the Broumov-born player.

Besides Pöpperle, Jakub Krejčík and Zbyňek Irgl had great performances. Krejčík, a 20-year-old defenceman from Slavia Praha, scored a goal and added an assist in his national team debut. Irgl waited two years to get a goal at the international level and scored twice against the Finns. "It is good for any team when some guys, who do not score much, score goals," Pöpperle concluded.