Czech Defeats Finland, 3-1

After dropping a 4-1 decision to Sweden on Wednesday, the Czech Republic defeated Finland in an early morning matchup in the 2013 IIHF World Junior Championships on December 28.
Seven players had at least a point, and Patrik Bartosak stopped 29 shots as the Czech Republic won its first game of the tournament, 3-1. Bartosak is 17-7-2 with the WHL’s Red Deer Rebels this season, with a 2.35 GAA and .931 save percentage in 1,554 minutes played during his sophomore season with Red Deer.

Czech opened the scoring 14:17 into the first period with a goal from Tomas Hyka, with Tomas Pavelka earning the lone assist on the opening goal.

Czech doubled its lead just over two minutes later on the power play, with Marek Hrbas notching a goal from Petr Sidlik and Martin Frk to make it 2-0 after a penalty to Finland’s Juuso Riikola. Hrbas has two goals and 10 assists in 36 games with the Kamloops Blazers this season.

Finland finally got on the board toward the beginning of the second period, with Chicago Blackhawks prospect Teuvo Teravainen scoring his first of the tournament from Ville Pokka and Petteri Lindbohm to cut the lead to one goal.

The Finnish team pulled for the extra attacker with less than thirty seconds remaining in regulation time, Dmitrij Jaskin tapped in the empty netter to make it 3-1, and that’s all she wrote for the game.

Joonas Korpisalo, a third-rounder drafted to Columbus in 2012, had 18 saves on 21 shots faced for Finland, who had previously won its first game of the tournament on December 26 in a 5-1 victory over Latvia.

Finland and Czech are now tied for third place in Group A standings, having each won one of two games played and lost one in regulation.

Finland’s next game is December 30 against Switzerland, while Czech faces off against Latvia later that day.