“Riga: Czech striker on track to break championship record after securing quarterfinals spot”

Riga (from our correspondent) – And with the certainty of progressing to the quarterfinals, he still has at least three more matches ahead of him to become the leader of the Czech scorers in one championship with eight and possibly more goals.

Did you know about this statistic?

I don’t deal with it now, even though it’s nice to listen to. It’s nice, but I’ll appreciate it later. I hope I am not done and that I will continue to do well. I don’t intend to change anything and I hope it continues and it falls to me or others.

While, for example, David Pastrňák scored his seventh goal at the World Cup last year only in the seventh game, you managed to do it after only five duels…

It cannot be compared. Every match and tournament is different. Pasta is a bouncer, I’m not. This is how I would rate it.

Did you notice the banners that appeared in the stands from the start of the match? It was up to them to score a goal when Klára’s wife has a birthday on the day of the match.

My family put them there, my wife’s birthday is on Saturday. I tried so I could give her a present. I think the goal and the win did it.

I’ll tell her later. But we texted and called.

Does the wife often go to hockey with posters?

No, she only did it here. I don’t even know where they got it. Maybe in the fanzone. It was nice to see.

Is it a boost that your family came to Riga to support you?

It’s great, you want to have those closest to you. I don’t want to be alone. I like to put hockey out of my head, go to a cafe, talk about something else. About children, family, wives. I’m glad we dedicated the victory to them.

How hard was the journey to him?

The 2-0 result doesn’t quite do it justice, but I think we had chances to score more goals. The two of us went to the gate alone, but it didn’t go down there. Apart from the second period, when we offered them power plays, it was good.

You needed such a peaceful match, didn’t you?

Yeah, I think it was good. Of course, the second period cost us a lot of energy, it fell on us, we had a lot of expulsions. That’s something we don’t want to put our opponents on edge. On the other hand, the boys managed it fantastically in weakening and Karel (Vejmelka) caught what passed. We blocked a lot of shots. Great for me.

In addition, you secured advance to the quarter-finals ahead of time…

It’s the thing we wanted. Now we have two matches that will be a big test. It’s the matches we’re here for.