Czech Republic were not able to repeat Switzerland’s surprise in their The World Games semi-final against Sweden. The Scandinavian giants were able to come back from a goal down to win by 5-3 and secure their spot in Sunday’s final against Switzerland.

Photo: Martin Flousek

The Czech Team entered the rink with thundering support from their fans who had traveled to Poland in masses making the stands red, white and blue. The team answered their fans’ call with taking the lead through a goal scored by Ondrej Nemecek. The Czechs’ energetic and passionate performance built them several additional opportunities but Viktor Klintsten showed why he was Mikael Hill’s choice for the semi-final.

Sweden had to do without their offensive star Kim Nilsson who sat the game out with what yesterday looked like a foot injury, but Sweden’s quantity of quality players paved their comeback still in the second period. Johannes Larsson equalized and then it was Jonas Svahn´s time. Svahn scored two goals in three minutes making it almost look like the Sweden were able to star preparing for the final.

Marek Benes’s goal in the first minute of the final period brought the Czechs back in the game and several times they were not far from tying it up. Only after Lukas Veltscmid’s penalty mere 86 seconds from full time eased the pressure at the Swedish end. After passing the ball around for a while, Emil Johansson and Alexander Galante Carlström were able to score another one and after the goalie-less Czechs had fumbled at their own end, Tobias Gustafsson got to lift in one more for the final result.

Best players:
#31 Viktor Klintsten
#23 Ondrej Nemecek

Watch the post-game interview with the head coaches Mikael Hill (SWE) and Petri Kettunen (CZE)