EDMONTON, AB -The Czech Republic rolled over Denmark 7-0 tonight making a successful debut in the 2012 World Junior Championship series sanctioned by the International Ice Hockey Federation. The Danes were outshot 44 to 12 in the lopsided contest played at Rexall Place. In Tuesday’s other WJC contest, Latvia and Slovakia played a late game in Calgary.
The WJC tournament is initially divided into two preliminary round groupings. Group A participants include Latvia, Russia, Switzerland, Slovakia and Sweden while the B Group consists of Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland and the United States. Preliminary round games are being held in Edmonton for Group B participants and in Calgary for Group A teams.
In tonight’s matchup Tomas Hertl led the Czech Republic with two goals as goaltender Petr Mrazek had little work in recording the shutout. Sebastian Feuk took the loss in net for Denmark.
The game started slowly in one sense as the teams combined for just one goal in the opening period. Hertl deflected a shot originally launched by team mate Jakub Culek for the only marker of the period. Marek Hrbas also picked up an assist on the goal which came at 5:44 of the period. The power play goal hit the post before rolling just across the goal line. While the scoring was limited in period one Feuk saw a barrage of 16 shots in the stanza. Meanwhile the outmanned Danes managed only two shots on goal in the period.
The Czechs pulled away in the second period running the lead to 3-0 as the offensive assault on Feuk continued. The Danish goal tender was hammered with another 12 shots while his team managed to fire just two shots on goal at Mrazek.
First in the second period Hertl got his second strike of the game at 2:44. It came on an odd bounce. Hertl fired a shot into the crease that hit the back of Feuk’s leg pad and ended up in the net for a 2-0 lead. Next up at 11:13 Radek Faksa got the third Czech goal with a deflection in front of the net. Jiri Riha got the lone assist on the goal launching an original shot from the point. The teams went into the second intermission with the Danes trailing 3-0.
The Czechs blew the game open in the third period scoring twice in a 20 second span of time and four times overall. Petr Holik (Jiri Sekac, Petr Zamorski) scored on a power play at 1:50 and Tomas Filippi got an unassisted score just 20 seconds later on a turnover by the Danish defense.
The game’s sixth goal was scored by Dmitrij Jaskin (Daniel Krejci, Thomas Hyka) at 15:06 and then Jiri Riha closed out the scoring at 16:42 for the 7-0 final score. Riha’s goal drew assists from Culek and Vojtech Mozik. Culek had three assists in the game to lead all scorers.
Group B action in Edmonton on Wednesday features a collision between the Czechs and Canadians while Finland will face off against the USA. In Group A at the Saddledome in Calgary Switzerland plays Sweden while Slovakia and Russia will skate in the last game of the day.
After the round-robin preliminary series, the top three teams in each group advance to the playoff round. Meanwhile the fourth and fifth place teams move to the relegation round. Teams receive three points for a regulation time win, two points for an overtime or shootout win and one point for an overtime or shootout loss in the preliminary round.
The top seeded teams in each group after the preliminary round get byes in the Quarterfinal Round thus moving directly into the Semi-Finals. The other playoff qualifiers play in the Quarterfinals for the right to move into the Semi-Finals. The Quarterfinals and all subsequent action will be held in Calgary with the Gold Medal game scheduled for January 5, 2012.
Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
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