2021 IIHF World Championships
Game 06
Great Britain 1 Czech Republic 6
In this contracted World Championships, the schedule has not been kind to Great Britain.
Less than 24 hours after playing fourth seeds Sweden, GB had to face the might of fifth seeded Czech Republic and it was obvious the quick turnaround allied with playing their sixth game in eight days had taken its toll.
First Period
Great Britain almost took a shock lead inside the opening minute. A blast from the point by David Phillips resulted in a rebound that eluded his teammates.
The puck was recovered behind the Czech net and Robert Dowd attempted to tee up Liam Kirk but the pass was just out of reach for the 21-year-old who wasn’t able to get a proper shot away.
What would have been a powerplay for the underdogs was actually four-on-four action as the officiating through this tournament continued to do GB no favours.
It left them without the services of David Clements for ten minutes, adding the pressure on an already tired group.
A turnover by the Czech Republic resulted in Ciaran Long being alone in the slot but frustratingly the Belfast forward fired wide of the target.
GB killed a penalty and then created another chance of note.
Excellent work from Kirk at the offensive blue line allowed Brendan Connolly to drive into the high slot but his shot was easily held by Roman Will.
The deadlock was broken at the eight-minute mark.
Lukas Klok was presented with far too much space to line up a shot and with both Josh Tetlow and Mark Richardson screening Jackson Whistle, the GB netminder had little chance to see the puck let alone make a save.
Whistle would finish the period with an excellent save to deny Matej Stransky, his 17th stop of the period.
GB’s last chance to head into the intermission level arrived when Ben Lake’s shot went wide of the net but rebounded back to Mike Hammond who frustratingly couldn’t squeeze the puck past or over the outstretched left pad of Will.
Second Period
The Czech’s took control in the middle frame as they pounced on a series of individual errors, missed assignments and general poor puck management by Great Britain.
A turnover in the defensive zone allowed Filip Hronek to step in and finish with a backhand shot past Whistle to make it 2-0 just 33 seconds in.
The turnovers continued and led to a third goal just four minutes later – Libor Sulak scoring with a quick release wrist shot.
Great Britain survived a penalty kill but a fourth goal wasn’t long in arriving.
Filip Chytil delivered a beautiful finish in tight but there’s no way he should have been allowed to ghost in behind a GB defense with such ease.
With the scoreline at 4-0 with just 32 minutes played, there was a chance the game could get out of hand on the scoreboard but that never really materialised, in part thanks to more heroics from Whistle.
A late period power play allowed Great Britain to get themselves on the scoreboard.
Liam Kirk and Mark Richardson exchanged possession at the point before the latter let fly with a shot that Will was unable to glove.
Matthew Myers showed strength and determination to crash home the rebound much to the delight of his teammates.
Third Period
It was obvious that Great Britain was out of gas by this point of the game, except for one player that is.
A memorable moment to take away from this encounter was an incredible coast-to-coast rush from Kirk. He was denied at the first time of asking and on a second opportunity as GB created a turnover in the offensive zone on the same shift.
GB created nothing of note on a power play and then sadly lost the services of Whistle due to injury and Ben Bowns was called into action.
Bowns could do nothing to stop the Czech Republic from tacking on a couple more goals as they simply would not take their foot off the gas.
Libor Sulak waltzed into the slot to give the Czechs a fifth goal and Sulak netted his second of the game to make it 6-1.
Great Britain now has two days to fully rest, recover and get their legs under them before going again for the final game of the tournament.
Switzerland will be another huge test but there are ranking points and pride to play for.
Great Britain will want to avoid finishing bottom of Group A and would like to finish in the standings above both Italy and Norway in Group B.
GB Player of the Game: Jonathan Phillips
Post Game Notes:
It was another good performance from Jackson Whistle before he sadly had to leave the game early through injury. He’s embraced his role with just two starts and has not let anyone down.
Matthew Myers scored his first goal of the tournament and his second point. Between picking up his first points at this level, reaching one hundred caps and captaining GB for one game, it’s been a memorable tournament for the Cardiff native.
Liam Kirk wasn’t able to test the twine but he did record a secondary assist on the lone goal to give him six points in as many games.
At the time of writing, he remains top of the goal-scoring charts and ranks fourth overall in points.
Line-up
Forwards
Kirk-Connolly-Dowd
Lake-Perlini-Hammond
Davies-Myers-J.Phillips
Ferrara-Lachowicz-Betteridge
Long
Defense
O’Connor-D.Phillips
Tetlow-Richardson
Ehrhardt-Clements
Jones
Goaltenders
Whistle
Bowns
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