– Swedes and Czechs in the semi-finals, Switzerland will face Canada
The Swedes beat Finland in overtime and the Czechs eliminated the United States 1-0 on Thursday in the last two quarter-finals of the World Cup.
Published today at 11:10 p.m.
The Czechs reach the semi-finals of their World Cup.
AFP
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Sweden and the Czech Republic qualified for the semi-finals of the world championship in the Czech Republic on Thursday evening. Saturday in the semi-finals, the two teams will meet face to face (2:20 p.m.), while Switzerland, which eliminated Germany (3-1)will be opposed to Canada (6:20 p.m.), which eliminated Slovakia (6-3).
Few goals
In Ostrava, Sweden and Finland did not offer a festival of goals to the 6,691 spectators, which is not a surprise, and it was in overtime that the Swedes finally won (2-1 after).
Both teams were keen to qualify for the final four, a feat they had failed to achieve at the last World Cup in Finland and Latvia. In the quarters, the Swedes fell against Latvia (1-3) and the Finns were beaten by Canada (1-4), future champion.
Thursday, the reigning Olympic champions dominated the match (32 shots to 19 in regulation time), but Finnish goalkeeper Emil Larmi said no for a long time. We had to wait until the end of the last period (56th) to finally see a goal come from the cane of Rasmus Dahlin.
But the players coached by Jukka Jalonen did not give up and, 53 seconds before the siren, Hannes Bjorninen brought his side back up to par (60th). Short-lived joy since in overtime, in power-play, the Swedes reached the last four by scoring through Joel Eriksson Ek (66th).
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Dostal says no
In the other quarter-final, it wasn’t a goal celebration either. In a remake of the quarter-final of the last World Cup won 3-0 by the North Americans, the Czechs this time took their revenge by winning by the smallest score (1-0).
Pavel Zacha, assisted by David Spacek and Rapperswil player Roman Cervenka (27th), scored the first goal of the evening, making the Prague Arena and its 17,413 spectators erupt with joy.
With this single goal in advance, the Czechs trembled for a long time, but goalkeeper Lukas Dostal and the defense resisted until the end, despite 36 American attempts (compared to 28 for the hosts).
They join the final four two years after their bronze medal won at the World Cup in Finland.
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Yves Desplands has been a journalist and editor at Sport-Center since 2015. He has held the same position for the sports section of Le Matin since 1999. From 1994 to 1999, he covered ice hockey and motocross for this daily. More informations
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