Czechia allowed a goal just 22 seconds into the game, before scoring nine unanswered en route to a 9-1 victory over Switzerland on Monday at the World Junior Hockey Championship in Halifax.
Switzerland’s Louis Robin raced the length of the ice to get a loose puck that Czech goalie Tomas Suchanek probably should have played, before deking him five-hole. But that was all Suchanek allowed the rest of the way, stopping the remaining 17 Swiss shots he faced as his team booked a spot in Wednesday’s semifinals in convincing fashion.
Jiri Kulich got the Czechs on the scoreboard just 2:19 after Robin’s goal and they never looked back. They scored two more that period (Marcel Marcel, Petr Hauser), followed by four in the second (David Jiricek, Kulich again, Gabriel Szturc, Eduard Sale), and two more in the third (Marcel and Szturc, each with their second).
Kulich and Marcel finished with four points each.
The Swiss pulled starting goaltender Kevin Pasche just 1:05 minutes into the second period when Czechia scored 28 seconds in, but it made little difference. Pasche gave up four goals on 11 shots and Alessio Beglieri allowed five on 17 shots.
