Swedes get shootout win over Czechs

Adam Bokvist scored the shootout-winning goal and had two assists as Sweden beat the Czech Republic 4-3. Samuel Fagemo also had a three-point game and Filip Hallander scored twice for the Swedes, while Adam Gajarsky scored twice for the Czechs. In an offensive game, Olof Lindbom made 39 saves for Sweden and Lukas Dostal stopped 33 for the Czechs.

Defenceman Adam Bokvist led off the shootout between Sweden and the Czech Republic and scored the only goal, making a nifty move and beating Czech goalie Lukas Dostal high to the glove side. Bokvist also had two assists in the game, as the Swedes got their second straight win, despite never leading in the game.

The Czechs opened the scoring early on a nice effort from Zdenek Sedlak, cutting in on the Swedish goal 1-on-2 and getting a backhander away. Olof Lindbom made the save, but Michal Kvasnica put in the rebound. The rest of the first period was full of end-to-end action, with both Lindbom and Dostal making some fine saves, and it finished 1-0.

Each team scored twice in the second period, with the first seven minutes being especially wild, which energized the crowd of more than 2000. Petr Cajka hit the goalpost in the early going, and then Adam Gajarsky scored his first of the game to put the Czechs up by two – deflecting Jan Dluhos´s shot from the point. But the Swedes answered back with two quick ones of their own to even the score. Samuel Fagemo ripped a wrister from the top of the circle over Dostal´s glove, and then Filip Hallander fired home the rebound on a 2-on-1 after Dostal had made the initial save on Bokvist´s shot.

Gajarsky´s second of the game and third of the tournament gave the lead back to the Czechs in the 33rd minute, as he dug the puck out of the corner, cut in front of the net, and beat Lindbom to the near side.

That was the last goal that Lindbom surrendered in the game, however, as the Swedish goalie made 39 saves in 65 minutes of hockey, plus three more in the shootout. He was amazing in the third period, stopping all 16 shots he faced. Meanwhile, the Swedes tied the game midway through the final period, with Hallander and Fagemo perfectly executing a give-and-go play, with the former scoring his second of the game.

Both teams had chances in the five-minute overtime period, with the best chance going to the Czech Republic´s Jakub Lauko, who was fouled from behind and awarded a penalty shot. Lauko tried to go five-hole, but Lindbom calmly took it away. Dostal also stopped six Swedish shots – many of them dangerous. Nobody scored, however, setting uup Bokvist´s heroics.