Having just suffered their first loss at the World Juniors against the USA on Saturday, Team Canada had a day to lick their wounds before their quarterfinal match-up against the Czech Republic.
The game would be a far cry from the 5-0 drubbing Canada gave the Czechs in pre-tournament action. Having to overcome a bad bounce leading to an early deficit and shaky goaltending throughout, Canada held together to beat the Czechs 5-3 and advance to the semifinals.
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Czechs strike first
Team Canada has been dominating most of the weaker teams at the World Juniors, so it was a bit of a wake-up call when the Czech Republic opened the scoring in this one.
Kase scores after a nice assist by the referee. 1-0 Czech Republic. pic.twitter.com/10jFXrQG68
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) January 3, 2017
It was Ondrej Kase putting the puck past Connor Ingram with a little help from the referee.
Bad luck for Canada, who found themselves down 1-0 after the first period despite leading 11-3 in shots.
Canada storms back
You knew Canada wasn’t going to let a goal like that define the game, and they went to work in the second period.
Canada outshot the Czechs 10-0 in the first seven minutes before finally beating goaltender Jakub Skarek. It was birthday boy Blake Speers – who turns 20 years old today – getting the goal.
Happy Birthday to Blake Speers as he gets Canada on the board! #WorldJuniors @CanadianTire #BigPlay https://t.co/JLvAqi0ZFz pic.twitter.com/IthnShxl4w
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) January 3, 2017
Of course they wouldn’t stop there, taking the lead a few minutes later. After all, Team Canada goals are like potato chips, you can’t have just one.
It was another goal from Canada’s bottom-six forward lines, with Mitchell Stephens scoring right off a face-off for his first goal of the tournament.
Frantic middle frame continues
Teams continued to trade chances in what ended up being a very entertaining second period.
After Canada dominated the first half of the period, the Czechs finally got a chance to bring it the other way, and Tomas Soustal’s snap shot beat Ingram to tie the game at two.
It was the first shot for the Czechs since scoring their first goal.
Soustal goal, 2-2 pic.twitter.com/BM3fU2YzOf
— GIF Grand Maester (@myregularface) January 3, 2017
Not to start a goalie controversy, but I think Carter Hart would’ve had that one.
The tie didn’t even last all of five minutes before Thomas Chabot scored a beautiful goal for Canada, putting them back on top.
Thomas Chabot shows great confidence & puts Canada ahead with a beautiful goal. #WorldJuniors @CanadianTire #BigPlay https://t.co/JLvAqi0ZFz pic.twitter.com/KGUBX617m5
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) January 3, 2017
The score would stay 3-2 heading into the final 20 minutes.
Canada puts it away
The trend from the second period carried into the third, which meant more goals for everyone!
First, Julien Gauthier scored in tight to double the lead for Canada.
Gauthier makes it 4-2. Nice pass by Roy. pic.twitter.com/YcCxZ8806D
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) January 3, 2017
The Czechs refused to go away quietly though, and Simon Stransky scored on a big rebound to cut Canada’s lead to just one.
Fortunately, Canada had the answer once again. Less than a minute after the Czech’s third goal, Gauthier scored his second of the period to restore the two goal lead for Canada.
Gauthier gets another, 5-3 #CANvsCZE #WorldJuniors #WJC2017 pic.twitter.com/WkEJmghpUl
— abirdofparadise (@ubirdofparadise) January 3, 2017
From there, Canada would settle things down and kill the clock, allowing just one shot after taking the two goal lead.
It was a textbook effort from Canada’s forward corps throughout the game. The offense made it look easy, seemingly generating a goal whenever it felt as though they needed one.
Despite subpar goaltending (three goals on 10 shots), the game always felt in Canada’s control. They never looked worried.
That's a good win for Canada. Some things went wrong. But they persevered nicely. Sweden is next Wednesday in the semis at Bell Centre.
— BrianWilde (@BWildeCTV) January 3, 2017
Team Canada now has a day off before they face Sweden in the semifinals on Wednesday at 4:30 pm PT. If they win, they play the winner of the USA-Russia game for the gold medal.
WHAT A GAME it was! Watch the highlights of Canada’s 5-3 quarter-final win over the Czechs at the #WorldJuniors. @HC_Men @HC_WJC @narodnitym pic.twitter.com/Y4Zc7MiF4f
— IIHF WJC (@iihf_wjc) January 3, 2017