Czechia defeats Denmark, will face Canada in Olympic quarter-final

Czechia defeated Denmark 3-2 in their qualification round game on Tuesday and will face Canada in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

The quarter-final will be a rematch of the opening game for both Canada and Czechia last week, which Canada won 5-0.

“We let them win the first one because we knew we were not going to win two in a row against Canada,” Martin Necas joked after the win over Denmark.

Tuesday’s game was scoreless through 25 minutes before both teams found their offence in a five-goal second period.

Czechia took a 1-0 lead in the second period on a goal from Necas, marking his third straight game with a goal. Alexander True of Denmark tied the game less than four minutes later.

Vancouver Canucks centre David Kampf tipped in a pass from Jan Rutta to restore the Czechia lead just 1 minute and 13 seconds after True’s goal. Just over a minute later Roman Cervenka scored to extend Czechia’s lead to 3-1.

Nick Olesen scored on the power play after Tomas Hertl was called for tripping to bring Denmark back within one with just under three minutes left in the second period.

Denmark pushed hard for a tying goal in the final two minutes, but neither team was able to score in the third.

Czechia bounced back from their loss to Canada with a 6-3 win over France before falling to Switzerland 4-3 in overtime in their final preliminary game.

Denmark fell 3-1 to Germany in their opener and lost 6-3 to the United States in their second game before picking up a 4-2 win over Latvia on Sunday.

The two teams finished eighth and ninth in the standings after the group round, leaving the winner of Tuesday’s game on course to face the top-seeded Canadians.

The tournament will reseed for the semifinals with the top remaining seed facing the lowest remaining seed.