Thursday, February 18, 2010

Olympics: Czech Republic vs Slovakia

This was a great game and some of the best hockey so far of the tournament. I agree with Tom on that one that's for sure. Going into this game I heard a lot of talk of Jaromir Jagr's washed up and Ziggy Palffy is playing in a weak league. Lots of negative talk surrounding the two former NHLers and also a lot of high expectations as well. I've seen many KHL games the past two seasons I knew Jagr would not disappoint but Palffy I had not seen anything of since his unretirement and was expecting the worst. Jaromir Jagr did not disappoint however and pretty much controlled the game for the Czech's in my mind. Palffy however was almost invisible and to be honest if I didn't see the game sheet I wouldn't have known he had played. Patrik Elias of the Czech's started the scoring off for the Czech's in the 1st period, with Marian Gaborik close behind him scoring for the Slovaks. The second period was the Jaromir Jagr show however as he scored a great breakaway snipe and assisted with a nice feed to Tomas Plekanec. I thought Jaroslav Halak was looking pretty good till the Jagr goal but I thought he kept his composure. Tomas Vokoun played extremely well and had an amazing recovery save that held the Czechs in there. If it wasn't for him and Jagr the results would have been different. My bum of the night had to be Ziggy Palffy whose hype was lost with his low level of play.
player of the game obviously Jaromir Jagr.

Overall it's going to be tough for the Slovaks as they have a big game against the Russian's tonight especially after playing the night before. I think the Russian's will win but it wont be a major blow out. Look for both Hossa's to try and elevate their games, and the Slovak's will need a lot more out of Chara if their going to contend. The Slovaks should find themselves having to upset in the qaulifications with most likely only one win. Czech's who get the Latvians Friday then the Russian's saturday wont make the top 4 most likely but should be able to easily cruise into the qaurterfinals.

1st Period
Goal 1: Patrik Elias - Martin Havlat, Miroslav Blatak
Goal 1: Marian Gaborik - Marian Hossa, Pavol Demetra
2nd Period
Goal 2: Jaromir Jagr - Roman Cervenka
Goal 3: Tomas Plekanec - Jaromir Jagr, Marek Zidlicky
3rd Period
No Scoring

In Net
Czech Republic - Tomas Vokoun
Slovakia - Jaroslav Halak

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