Medal within reach

Vojtěch Horáček

This junior championship was played at the end of 2022 and continued in 2023. It was played in Halifax (Canada).

The tournament was divided into 2 groups of 5 teams. The Czech Republic won the group stage with only one loss against Sweden. And they went straight to the quarter-finals where they faced Switzerland and beat them very easily 9:1. Next station semifinals. If they win, they have certainty of winning a medal. Our opponent was a team from Sweden. This match is revenge for our unsuccessful match from the group stage.

Swedish hockey is based on a good and strong defence. And also, when you play against them, you usually have more shots, but their defensive work is really amazing, and it is hard to create scoring chances.

The match: 1st period, some chances on both sides, but nothing that dangerous to be a goal 2nd period started really bad for the Czechs, because after incompleted 2 minutes, Sweden scored a goal. Then it was tough to beat the Swedish defensive line. And another surprise was that there was a moment when Sweden started overplaying us, but it didn´t stand long. 3rd-period Absolute domination of the Czech Republic, almost the whole time we spent in the Swedish zone. It was an intense part of the match. Every Czech fan was hoping to score an equalizer. And 40 seconds before the third horn David Jiříček scored a very important goal, and the game was tied 1:1 and was going to overtime.

Overtime is played 3-3, so there is more space to play. And the game was going from side to side. Chances were on both sides, and it started to look like this match would decide the winner in the penalty shootout, but in the 10th minute of the overtime, Jiří Kulich circled over every Swedish player and scored a beautiful GOAL.

Everybody in the Czech Republic was happy that we would play in the finals against Canada. But sadly we lost the final game also after overtime, but I think that we showed that our hockey is really good and we can compete against everyone.