With their 3:2 win over Finland after penalties, the Czechs kept their clean slate. However, the Finns demanded everything from the runners-up of the last World Cup.
After the Czechs' laboured victory over Switzerland in the penalty shoot-out, the Finns seemed to realize that the runners-up was not untouchable. With this in mind, Finland started the game concentrated and hardly gave the Czech team any room for imposing its play. Even better: After 10 minutes, Lampi and Wolin danced their way through the Czech defence and scored the opening goal. Even after that, the Eastern Europeans rubbed up against Finland's aggressive and solid defence. And when they did break through, goalkeeper Kuusamo was on hand.
Not taking any unnecessary risks at the back, the Finns repeatedly made pinpricks in offence. Kangas converted one of these into a two-goal lead after a rebound. The favourites began to falter. In the third period in particular, the runners-up showed a reaction and pinned the Finns back in defence. After numerous thwarted shots, goalkeeper Kuusamo was then powerless against Bily in the 38th minute, who reacted reflexively to a rebound. With more than two minutes remaining, the Czechs replaced the goalkeeper with an extra outfield player and Hrabar eventually equalized with a shot from distance. The game was decided in the penalty shoot-out: Bily was the only one to score. As against Switzerland, the runners-up got away with a black eye.
Finland has finished the group stage. The Czech Republic will face the still unbeaten USA on Tuesday in a much-awaited scoop live in Lonza Arena in Visp or in the live stream for free.

