Finland – Czech Republic 6:1, Shame on hockey players. The Czechs averted a historic debacle at the Swedish Games

Compared to Thursday’s winning match, defender Vála and forwards Jašek and Hrabík remained out of the lineup, Mozík got the opportunity, Bambula moved from the position of 13th forward and Kovařčík took his place. Petr Kváča from Liberec entered the goal area this time.

Kari Jalonen coached his 30th game on the Czech bench and could round the number of victories to twenty. His counterpart, namesake Jukka Jalonen, was exceptionally absent from the Finns, he did not participate in the duel due to knee surgery.

However, even with a less experienced team, Finnish assistant Mikko Manner had much more reasons to be happy. At the same time, the introduction was not bad from the Czech team. The representatives survived the weakening and by attacking well, they settled in the attacking zone several times. However, they had a hard time getting chances, the exception being Kovář’s first five. It was the captain who could have opened the scoring from the ring, but he didn’t burn Jatkola.

On the contrary, the Finns struck from an inconspicuous event. The referees missed a foul with a high stick on Černoch, and Matipal’s counterattack blew through the Czech double block and Kváča. In the following minutes, the national team resisted and gamely held on to the well-skating Northerners. But everything was broken by the second Finnish goal. In the 15th minute, the Suomi selection made a great play on the counter and 37-year-old Juhamatti Aaltonen scored the second point. Four shots were enough for Finland to score two goals.

Since then, the Czech game has fallen apart. At the beginning of the second period, Ahti Oksanen from Exhradek prepared two goals for Ruotsalainen. His dotted pass was knocked into the goal by Kváča and at the score of 0:4 he gave way to Aleš Stezko, who caught the Swedes on Thursday.

However, there was no change in the performance of the game, in the middle part the national team shot at the goal only three times. In addition, the Vítkovice goalkeeper conceded after five minutes after Saarijärvi’s cannonball. Jääskä also burned the path to the near post, and the Czech Republic went to the cabins for the second time with a shameful six-goal deficit.

“A good start to the game, but we broke down the players badly twice. Our self-confidence fell, we started making mistakes. I don’t know if we didn’t stick to the system or if we’re missing details,” defender Lukáš Klok had a hard time finding the cause in an interview with ČT sport.

Historical infamy began to hover over Kari Jalonen’s wards. The highest defeat (0:7) was recorded by the Czechs on a day exactly 11 years ago. Also in Sweden, also with the selection of Finland, the veteran Aaltonen was also there. Since then they have suffered four 0-6 defeats, two to Russia, one to Sweden and the last to Canada at the 2016 World Cup.

The Czech hockey players met at least a partial goal and did not rewrite history. Jalonen rotated the line-up and at the beginning of the last period, Hynek reduced Zohorna. After that, Flek and Smejkal got into separate escapes, but they did not mature at Jatkol. On the other hand, a stick helped Stezko.

Even the won third period did not prevent a shameful defeat of 1:6, together with the semi-final duel of the last World Cup with Canada, the highest under Jalonen. In addition, the national team once again reduced its shot average, which it has averaged only twenty in eight games this season. Against Finland, he shot seventeen times on goal, the opponent needed only three more attempts to score six goals. In short, nothing went well in the match.