Czechs up next for powerful Canadians

BUFFALO The Czech Republic team has heart, as their coach likes to say, but they’re going to need plenty more than that to beat Canada.

Canada has owned the Czech Republic in the history of the world juniors and the expectation will be the same when the countries meet in a semifinal match Thursday.

“Everyone thinks Canada is going to beat us, but the pressure is on Canada, right?” Czech coach Filip Pesan said after his team beat Finland 4-3 in a shootout in the quarter-finals on Tuesday.

“We have a great big heart and we are fighting (in) the game to win. If you see those guys and see it in their eyes, they want to fight, they want to battle, they want to block the shots and that is why we just made the semifinals.”

This Czech team has some fine talent — forward Filip Zadina, a lock to be a top-five pick in the 2018 NHL draft, scored two goals against Finland to give him five in the tournament; 2017 Carolina first-rounder Martin Necas has been excellent; and goaltender Josef Korenar will be looking to repeat his play in a 51-save performance versus the Finns.

But the odds are stacked high against them.

Canada beat the Czechs 9-0 in an exhibition game on Dec. 20, and while the Czechs are bound to be more organized than they were then, the same applies to Canada.

Kristian Reichel and Necas scored the Czech shootout goals.

Aapeli Rasanen, Olli Juolevi and Kristian Vesalainen had goals for Finland. Vesalainen also had the only Finnish goal in the shootout.

In other quarter-final matches, Sweden defeated Slovakia 3-2, while the United States defeated Russia 4-2. The U.S. and Sweden will now face one another in Thursday’s other semifinal.