Czechia rebounded from its opening loss to Slovakia with a commanding victory over Germany. Two goals apiece for Eduard Sale and Vojtech Hradec led the Czech scoring in a 7-1 verdict. The Germans, meanwhile, suffered a second big reverse but at least collected their first goal at this tournament.

After the shoot-out defeat on Thursday, the Czechs talked about the need to stay out of the box. Today, they had a power play chance just 16 seconds into the game. The first outing for those special teams was not always the most incisive, but managed to break the deadlock two seconds before Julius Sumpf returned to the ice. Pavel Simek’s cross-ice pass picked out Adam Zidlicky in the right-hand circle for a one-timer past Valentin Ankirchner in the German net.

"That first power play wasn't very good, we were a little nervous at the start, but we got a goal at the end of it," Hradec said. "Maybe it was a bit of a lucky goal, but it got us started."

Once started, the Czechs did not stop. Sale produced two quick goals – the first a breakaway with his team shorthanded, the second a deftly-executed penalty shot – to open a 3-0 lead and take the game away from the Germans. Sale was close to completing a five-minute hat-trick, but Ankirchner closed the door on him after the Kometa Brno forward found space in front of the net.

Up 3-0, the Czechs slipped into some bad habits and Germany had a 5-on-3 power play for 23 seconds after an O-zone penalty for Adam Csabi. However, the penalty kill did its job and Czechia took a three goal lead into the first intermission.

"After the loss against Slovakia we were kind of bombed up," said Dominik Petr. "It was an important game for us and we wanted to be on it right from the beginning. We did that, and we were better in the whole game."

At the start of the second period, team captain Jakub Dvorak made it 4-0, chasing Ankirchner from the net. Leon Willerscheid, who endured a demanding day against Canada yesterday, took over.

If Sale had the keys to Ankirchner, it turned out that Hradec knew how to solve Willerscheid. Within three minutes, he welcomed the new goalie to the game with a neat backhand finish off a Dvorak feed, then potted his second a couple of minutes later. Those goals got a rousing reception from a group of fans from Mlada Boleslav, where Hradec plays his club hockey.

"It was a great moment for me," Hradec smiled. "I had my family over for the game, my parents were here and I'm so excited that they were able to come and support us, and we could give them a good performance."

Sale thought he had his hat-trick in the 35th minute when, despite fluffing his initial shot, he managed to bear down on the net and ensure that the puck got through the goalie’s pads. However, the on-ice call was interference on the netminder and, despite a challenge from the Czech bench, the goal was whistled off.

Early in the third, Germany’s captain Edwin Tropmann was ejected from the game after a cross-check on Petr. The Czech forward was able to continue, but the German defence killed the major penalty. Midway through the final frame, Germany got a power play chance of its own and Linus Brandl went close to a consolation goal.

Finally, in the 57th minute, Germany got its first goal of the tournament. Brandl was the scorer, stuffing the puck home from close range off an assist from his Mannheim team-mate Kevin Bicker. It was not enough to change the outcome, even before Petr added a seventh for Czechia, but it offers the Germans some encouragement after a rough start to the tournament.

For the Czechs, the next test is an impressive-looking Swedish team. However, Petr believes he and his colleagues can ask some questions of the Group A leader. "I believe we showed what Czechia can do today," he said. "We are a good team, so let's see what happens in the rest of the tournament."