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Penalties: 4:8. PP goals: 3:1. SH goals: 0:0.
Referees: Jeřábek, Kosnar – Dědek, Klouček. Attendance: 2197.
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Report
Czechia get off on the right foot and take three important points from the evening game of the tournament-opening day in Břeclav. They scored in all three periods and kept a strong USA side at bay, putting seven goals past the away team’s goalie in a nine-goal game.
Adam Tittlbach opened the scoring in the 11th minute and the Czechs looked poised to add a second soon after. They got another chance on the powerplay, this time Petr Sikora hit the goal post with a shot from long distance, but the USA held on for the remainder of the opening 20 minutes.
A four-goal second frame saw the Czechs and the USA score two each. Will Zellers tied the game 1-1 with a nice powerplay goal but two back-to-back powerplay goals from Czechia got the home team back into a comfortable lead.
>However, the USA got within a goal by the end of 40 minutes of game time thanks to Eero Butella who was on the receiving end of some fantastic passing play by the Americans and had little work to tuck in the puck past the goal line.
Third-period action picked up right where the second left off, again ending with four more goals on the scoreboard. But unlike the middle frame, all four would be added to only one team’s score, as Czechia dominated the final 20 minutes of the game to take a deserved three points and important win.