The Czech youngsters could have confirmed the second place in the table with a victory over Kazakhstan, but they allowed the outsiders the first win in the elite group of the 18 championship in history, when they unexpectedly lost 3:4 in extra time.
In the quarter-finals, David Čermák’s men were threatened by strong opponents – home team Finland or the USA. Today, however, came the welcome help of the Swiss, who managed to turn Sweden around by the necessary point. The Czechs have the same six points in the table as the Northerners, but they are ahead of their opponents in the table thanks to a better match against each other, as they won 3:2 after raids on Sunday.
For the key match of the tournament, the Czechs will stay in Vantaa, where the third team from the group will arrive in Espoo, which is ultimately the Slovaks. At the beginning of the tournament, they suffered a 0:9 debacle against the USA, then they also fell 3:5 against Latvia and 0:4 against Finland. In the end, they needed to beat Norway by at least two goals, which they easily succeeded in doing.
The northerners were blown away by a ratio of 11:1. The match was played in the training hall due to problems with the ice caused by a broken ice rink.
The quarter-final duel will probably take place on Thursday at 1:45 p.m. Czech time. The Czech and Slovak 18 have already met three times this season. Čermák’s wards always rejoiced. They won 8:0 in December, then 3:0 in preparation for the championship and 4:3 after extra time.
| Under-18 Ice Hockey World Championship in Finland: |
|---|
| Group A (Espoo): |
| Slovakia – Norway 11:1 (5:1, 3:0, 3:0) |
| 17:00 Finland – USA |
| 1. | USA | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24:3 | 9 |
| 2. | Finland | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14:1 | 9 |
| 3. | Slovakia | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2:19 p.m | 3 |
| 4. | Latvia | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 10:18 a.m | 3 |
| 5. | Norway | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8:29 am | 3 |
| Group B (Vantaa): |
|---|
| Sweden – Switzerland 3:2 in overtime. (1:1, 1:1, 0:0 – 1:0) |
| 18:00 Canada – Kazakhstan |
| 1. | Canada | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20:4 | 9 |
| 2. | Czechia | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9:12 a.m | 6 |
| 3. | Sweden | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3:12 p.m | 6 |
| 4. | Switzerland | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 8:16 a.m | 4 |
| 5. | Kazakhstan | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 7:15 a.m | 0 |
