It’s rarely dull when Slovakia and Czechia face off in their “Federal Derby” and they kicked off the 2023 IIHF World Championship with a bang. All the scoring was done in the first period as Czechia won 3-2. Lukas Sedlak – playing in his first World Championship game at the age of 30 – scored the second and third Czech goals.
“I try hard every game but sometimes you just score on your chances and I guess that’s what happened today – I got two shots and two goals,” said Sedlak.
The Slovak and Czech fans created an electric pre-game atmosphere in Riga, both outside and inside the arena. That carried over onto the ice, where the two teams played a wild first period that saw enough goals and physicality.“We expected it was going to be a hard-fought game, lots of checking, but that makes it easy to get into the game,” said Slovak forward Robert Lantosi. “Overall, we're a pretty quick team and we try to use the speed we have, try to get pucks deep and play in their end. That's how we want to play.”
On the game’s first power play, Slovakia opened the scoring less than six minutes in on a one-timer from Martin Chromiak with Pavol Regenda providing a screen.
Roman Cervenka tied it with his 58th career World Championship point – the most of anyone in Riga or Tampere this year – finishing off a cross-ice give-and-go with Dominik Kubalik at 6:38.
The Slovaks regained the lead on a strange play where Simon Hrubec stopped a long, bouncing shot from Mislav Rosandic, but then in trying to cover the puck, accidentally paddled it between his own legs and into the net.
Sedlak’s first goal came on a wraparound while shorthanded on a play that started from good pressure by Jakub Flek. It appeared that Sedlak had overextended himself, but the puck went off the pad of a sliding Stanislav Skorvanek and across the goal line.
“I didn’t see much because I was falling down behind the net. I guess it went off the goalie so kind of lucky,” Sedlak described. “I think it was important that we scored that goal because if they got one (on the power play), it would have been a different game.”
A high-speed knee-on-knee collision with 1:23 remaining in the opening period resulted in Czech Jiri Cernoch staying down on the ice for an extended period of time. As a result, Rosandic was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct for kneeing.
It took Czechia just eleven seconds to cash in on their first power play, with Sedlak finishing off a nice tic-tac-toe passing play for his second of the game.
The Slovaks were able to weather the rest of the five-minute Czech power play early in the second period, despite a couple of close calls, after which the tempo of the game settled down considerably. Slovakia outshot Czechia 6-5 in a goalless middle frame.
As the third period wore on, the pace picked up again. The Czechs very nearly widened their lead with 7:13 to go when a rebound came to David Tomasek with a seemingly open net to shoot at, but Slovak penalty-killer Patrik Koch got his leg on the shot and deflected it out of play.
“I thought we played a pretty solid game,” said Czech defenceman Jakub Zboril. “We were more disciplined and didn't take many penalties. They had the major and we were able to score. I feel like we had a lot of chances that didn't go in. I think we should have scored at least four more.”
The Slovaks pushed late and pulled Skorvanek for an extra attacker, and a one-timer from the point by Richard Panik with seconds remaining nearly did it but whistled just wide of the far post.
“It was a tight game and I think the momentum was switching back and forth,” said Slovak forward Peter Cehlarik. “There was some special teams work, we had a huge penalty kill that allowed us to stay in the game but we were missing the last goal there.”
The Slovaks get right back at it tomorrow against host Latvia, while Czechia faces Kazakhstan on Sunday.
“It’s a long tournament and everyone wants to get off to a hot start, but tomorrow’s a new chance for us to win,” said Cehlarik.
