PRAGUE, 7 May 2004 - The United States advanced to the semifinals at the world championship on Wednesday with a shock defeat of favorites the Czech Republic in a penalty shootout after the teams skated to a 2-2 overtime tie.
German-based defenseman Andy Roach was the only one of 10 shooters — five from each side — to score, leaving the capacity home crowd in a stunned silence as the US players mobbed Edmonton Oilers goalie Ty Conklin.
“A defenseman taking a penalty shot may seem like a surprise, but he’s one of the best breakaway guys every practice,” said Mike Grier of the Buffalo Sabres.
In the day’s other quarterfinal, unbeaten Sweden advanced to the semifinals for the fourth consecutive year with a 4-1 win over Latvia. The US will face Sweden tomorrow.
The Americans came into the tournament hoping to make a good enough showing to keep them in the top eight of the world rankings to clinch a place at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.
Now they are one step away from battling for a world title.
“Neither team deserves to be out after that game,” said US coach Peter Laviolette.
Though not exactly on a scale of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” game that saw the US beat the favored Russians on the way to Olympic gold, the Americans nonetheless slayed a Goliath by slowing the play and to keep the Czech offense off balance.
“They were able to change the rhythm of the game tonight,” said Czech coach Slavomir Lener. “That was one of the keys.”
After a scoreless first period, the previously unbeaten Czechs took a 2-0 lead on goals by Martin Skoula and Jaromir Jagr.
But Richard Park’s sharp angle shot halfway through the second period somehow found its way into the net to give the Americans new life.
Erik Westrum’s shot then ricocheted off a Czech defender and past goalie Tomas Vokoun to even the score with nine minutes to play in the game.
Both sides had several good scoring chances in the 10-minute overtime period, but Vokoun and his US counterpart Ty Conklin made several acrobatic saves to keep the game going.
In the penalty shootout the Czechs’ high powered offense would have seemed to have the edge. But David Vyborny, Martin Havlat, Jagr, Petr Prucha and Jiri Dopita all failed to score. Matt Cullen, Park, Ryan Malone, and Chris Drury also came up empty, leaving it up to Roach, who plays for Mannheimer ERC in the German Hockey League, to finally get the puck in the net.
The Swedes were looking for a fast start and got it with Jonas Hoglund’s power-play goal at 2:38 of the first period.
Ottawa Senators forward Daniel Alfredsson made it 2-0 with a short-handed effort at 15:42. Dick Tarnstrom then scored with three seconds left in the period during a two-man advantage. After a scoreless second period Viktors Ignatjevs gave Latvia a ray of hope when his wrist shot from the blueline during a power play at 1:11 of the final frame made it 3-1.
But Boston Bruns forward Per Johan Axelsson put the game out of reach with another short-handed goal with 11 minutes remaining.
