Batna sinks Czech Republic, Johansson backstops shut-out win
Oskars Batna got Latvia off the mark with a winner 44 seconds from the end of an enthralling overtime period against the Czech Republic.
The teams tied 3-3 in a topsy-turvy 60 minutes, with a passionate Riga crowd going through a gamut of emotions as the teams traded goals. But Oskars Batna’s strike secured Latvia its first ever victory over the Czechs.
“I’ve got no words,” said the former Dinamo Riga man. “You could hear how the building exploded. It’s an amazing feeling, the first time in history we beat the Czechs.
“This is one of my favorite goals. I also scored the first time we beat Canada, but this was overtime so it’s very special.”
The Czechs struck first through David Nemecek in the ninth minute, sending a sinking feeling through the Latvian fans still waiting for their team to get its first points of the tournament. But Latvia, winless through its first two games, finally got rolling in the second period. Two quick goals turned the game upside down and transformed the atmosphere in Arena Riga. Rihards Bukarts, previously with Dinamo Riga and Admiral, tied it up on 22:16. Then, 62 seconds later, Martins Dzierkals, who played with Dinamo Riga in 2018-2019 and again in 2020-2021, put the co-host ahead for the first time in the tournament.
Although the Czechs found a tying goal midway through the second, Latvia would not be denied for a third game. Oskars Cibulskis restored the lead in the 46th minute and the arena was bouncing as the clock ticked down towards a win. However, that energy clearly inspired the Czechs: Michal Kempny scored late to tie it up, and his ebullient celebration had more than a small element of responding to the now silent home support.
Latvia had the last laugh, though. OT could have gone either way, but in the final seconds Janis Jaks thumped in a shot, Simon Hrubec failed to hold the rebound and Batna slid the puck into the net to unleash unbounded joy.
In Tampere, Finland took on Sweden in a similarly fervent atmosphere at the Nokia Arena. The Swedes arrived with two wins and two shut-outs in the first two games and kept up that fine defensive form. Lars Johansson, who backstopped a 1-0 victory over Germany in the Tre Kronor’s opener, kept Finland at bay until the third period.
At the other end, the Swedish offence ran into predictable difficulties against Finland’s well-drilled rearguard and the game remained scoreless until deep into the second period. But when Oscar Lindberg got a shooting chance in the right-hand circle, the former Dynamo Moscow man produced a blistering shot to break the deadlock and delight the sizeable Swedish contingent in a sell-out crowd.
The equalizer came early in the third when Harri Pesonen drilled the puck to the net and Juho Lammikko produced a billiard shot off Johansson’s back to score from a dead angle. Sweden’s net was breached for the first time after 166:47 of the tournament; the 2019 Gagarin Cup winner accounted for 106:47 of that time.
Almost immediately, Andre Petersson had a great chance to restore Sweden’s lead, but Emil Larmi closed the door on his rush and the game was destined to go all the way to a shoot-out. That was a repeat of last year’s Nordic match-up here, and the result went the same way with Sweden getting the verdict.
Johansson, emerging as one of the stars of this tournament, admitted to a minor disappointment from the shoot-out.
“I had confidence we were going to put a couple of pucks in, I know we have some great players who are going to score,” he said. “I’m a little bit disappointed I let two past me but I finally got a piece of the last one and I’m happy with the win.”
In the early Group A game, Germany once again pushed one of the top seeds hard but failed to get any reward. This time the USA’s young guns engineered a 3-2 victory on third-period goals from Harvard forwards Sean Farrell and Matt Coronato. At the same time, Canada edged a shoot-out verdict over Slovakia when Jack Quinn converted the 15th post-game attempt. Earlier, ex-Avangard man Peter Cehlarik tied the game off a Marek Hrivik feed.
Hrivik, once of Torpedo, was frustrated by his team’s inability to stay out of the box. Canada went 0 for 8 on the power play, but the defensive effort undermined Slovakia’s chances of posting back-to-back wins.
“They were strong on the puck in the battles,” he told IIHF.com “We had to match that to stay in the game and, for the most part, I think we did.
“But we kind of sold ourselves short with the penalties we took. I think we gave them a lot of momentum. We’ve got to change that because this was the third game in a row we put ourselves in that situation. It’s hard to go like that the whole tournament."
Main photo: Eurasia Sport Images / Getty Sport / GettyImages.ru
