Czechs getting used to North American ice

By RYAN MCCRACKEN on November 2, 2019.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken

The Czech Republic have a challenge on their hands.

As Group A’s only European squad, the young Czechs enter the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in unfamiliar territory in more ways than one. Given the entire roster competes in leagues overseas, this week will mark their first real test on a North American playing surface.

“They don’t have the experience with that surface. It’s their first experience with a small rink and a kind of different style of hockey,” said assistant coach Lukas Lomicky, whose Czechs hit the ice at the Canalta Centre to open their tournament Sunday at 3 p.m. against Team U.S.A. “The message is we need to be as simple as possible. We can’t over-handle the puck. It’s really different when you’re playing in Europe – you’ve got so much time and space to create something – but here, really you don’t have that time. And we’ve just got a couple days to adapt, so that’s kind of the challenge.”

Both the Czechs and Americans will be looking to return to the podium after falling short last year. The U.S.A. won gold in 2017, while the Czechs took bronze that year for the first time since 2006.

After dropping a 6-1 pre-tournament game to Sweden Thursday, Lomicky says the Czechs will need to embrace their strengths as a group if they hope to leave Alberta with some hardware around their necks.

“Our strengths should be team effort and team structure – play with systems, play on the edge, go shift-by-shift,” said Lomicky. “(The U.S.A.) have got so much skill, they’ve got good hockey IQ, so we’re expecting a really good, skilled team. We want to be a hard team to play against.”

Unlike every other team at the tournament, Team U.S.A. has the advantage of playing together year-round through the National Team Development Program. While it allows them to build chemistry ahead of tournament play, head coach John Wroblewski says there are benefits on the other side of the coin as well.

“It worked for us two years ago, but last year wasn’t the best situation for us. It’s kind of hit and miss. Six games in seven days with players of this age group, it’s a crapshoot and we’ve got to make sure we take care of everything we can off the ice as well as on it,” said Wroblewski. “There are some things to be said about having that excitement of putting on the jersey for the first time if you’re another federation.”

Wroblewski’s Americans enter the tournament after defeating Canada Red – who will play their round-robin games in Swift Current – in a 7-6 shootout. While they left with the right result, Wroblewski says they also came away with plenty to work on in their quest for gold.

“It was definitely an offensive turnout tonight for both teams,” said Wroblewski, whose Americans went 2-for-7 on the power play and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill in the pre-tournament barnburner. “I think there were a lot of tangible learning experiences here from our side of things, 5-on-5 and on special teams.”

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