Canada finishes group stage unbeaten, Czechs to play for 5th

Canada had already wrapped up top spot in the group with their second win yesterday, while the Czechs’ fate was sealed by Finland’s win over Switzerland earlier in the day, assuring the group hosts would finish third. However, that did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of the Břeclav fans. A game against Canada is usually the hottest ticket of the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, and this game drew a tournament-high 2,128 in attendance.

The Canadians started getting great chances right from the start, and the Czech relied on the goaltending of Jan Bednář to keep it scoreless. In the first 3:20 he stopped two breakaways, including one 2-on-nothing. It took until the last two minutes of the period before they finally broke through, and they did twice.

First it was Cole Perfetti with his tournament-leading fifth goal, taking a centring pass from Jamie Drysdale and firing it home from the slot with 1:52 on the clock. Then came some rough stuff and coincidental penalties were dished out, followed by a holding call against Tomáš Handl, and on the 4-on-3, Quinton Byfield’s initial shot went off the goalpost, but the rebound came right back to the highly ranked prospect and he buried it with just two seconds left in the period.

The Canadians charged out of the gate again in the second period, and Bednář had to be sharp to stop another drive from Perfetti. It was on the power play that the Canadians struck for the third time, and again it was Byfield from Hendrix Lapierre. Bednář refused to give up, though and just three minutes later he robbed Théo Rochette with the glove as he was falling forward.

For the first time in the game, the Czechs gave an offensive push midway through the second period and it was their top line leading the way, with shots from Tomáš Chlubna and Jan Myšák testing Tristan Lennox. But any momentum the Czech were gaining was cancelled by an unfortunate bounce off a stick in their own zone on a pass attempt by Connor McClennon that ended up in their net to make it 4-0.

By the end of the second period, the Canadians had shut out their opponents for eight straight periods. That streak lasted another 1:47 into the ninth period before Czech captain Michal Gut finally ended it - firing a long shot that Lennox stopped, then burying his own rebound.

The Canadians piled up the score after that. Lapierre scored on a shorthanded breakaway for his tournament-leading ninth point, and Ridly Greig and Jean-Luc Foudy rounded out the scoring.