Czech Republic beats Denmark 7:4 after a wild game, Kubalik breaks shooting jinx

The Czech team has already played its fifth game at the championship, winning 7:4 against Denmark, and the victory was not easy. The spectators had the most fun, seeing 11 goals. The good news is that Dominik Kubalík broke his shooting jinx.

“It’s disgusting. It’s really ugly, it’s unwatchable.” These words of Milan Antos from the 2021 World Cup probably come to mind when you say the match against Denmark. The Nordic team is simply not a favourite opponent for the Czech national team, as evidenced by the statistic that the Czechs have not won in regulation time in their last five matches.

After wins against Finland (shootout) and Norway, the Czechs lost to Switzerland in a shootout. That’s why they needed to score again against Denmark. On the other hand, Mikael Gath’s team surprisingly lost to Norway last time, before that they also lost to Canada and only beat Austria.

In the first period, the Czechs were almost given a gift. Almost two minutes of power play five-on-three, moreover, one of the Danes broke his stick during the bullpen and it was practically 5-on-2. But Kubalik and teammates didn’t take advantage of this huge opportunity.

With a minute and a half to go, Michael Kempny had to make up for his mistake and was ejected. The Danes, unlike the home team, took advantage of the power play when Blichfeld found Wejse beautifully in front of an empty net.

Going to the booths after such a period with the score 0:1 would not have been ideal for the Czech players, but luckily Jan Rutta made a shot eight seconds before the siren and his shot was stopped by the net.

The Czech Republic went on to win the rest of the game

Perhaps it was this goal that put new blood in the Czechs’ veins, as they made a crushing comeback in the second period. First, Jakub Flek got away from everybody and hung a shot under the top bar, and then the elite line did a great job as well.

Roman Cervenka saw David Kaše on the run and sent him a long pass that stopped at the boards. Kaše then showed his great game intelligence when he hinted at a goal and cleverly passed the puck underneath to Sedlak, who kind of “invisibly” backhanded the puck into the net. A confused Dichow goalie Nissen Kashe “ate” the goal hug and looked completely the other way.

Radim Rulík’s teammates showed increased confidence after that, they got another power play, which didn’t end in a goal, but looked much better than the one in the first period. After that, the Danes came to the fore.

Eight minutes before the end of the period, Jensen, who had gotten around Dostal, had a sure chance and was already heading into an empty net. But the Czech number one pulled off one of the saves of the championship and defused the big opportunity. But again just before the end of the period the Danes scored when Rusell’s shot from the blue ended up in the net.

In the third period, the O2 Arena went a little quiet for a while as Fisker Molgaard tied the game at 3:3. But then came another Czech flurry. First Kundrátek scored, then Tomášek passed from a breakaway to Kubalík and finally Kämpf also passed to Stránský.

But even 3 goals in 5 minutes did not completely frighten the Danes, because twenty seconds later they reduced the score to 6:4 From. But nothing more happened and the Czechs won 7: 4.

Source: Czech National Team, IIHF