Host Czechs erase American medal hopes at Ivan Hlinka tourney

Team USA had its medal hopes dashed at the Ivan Hlinka tournament at Breclav, Czech Republic, dropping a 7-3 decision against the host Czechs in its third and final round robin game at the eight-team U-18 tournament on Wednesday (August 9, 2017)

Unlike its first two games that saw the Americans grabbing quick leads, team USA found itself looking up at a 1-0 deficit just 34 seconds into this one and the team was never again able to draw even.

Adam Gajarsky, 17, who last season played on the Brno HC Kometa team, scored the first goal on a Czech powerplay and Jan Jenik, 16 added another 12 seconds from the end of the period. Jenik played last season with Bili Tygri Liberic’s U20 and U18 teams.

The home team widened the gap to 3-0 4:40 into the second period as Libor Zabransky made the Americans pay for penalty problems again, notching a goal with a two-man advantage. Zabransky is on the Central Scouting radar for next summer’s NHL draft as he is scheduled to return to the HC Kometa Brno pro team this season and ranked among the top 100 prospects in the World.

Ryan Savage, 17, from Troy, MI finally got the Americans on board with 5:13 to play in the middle period. The 5’11” forward is expected to return to the Fargo Force of the USHL this fall. Setting up the goal was Adam Samuelsson, a 17-year-old 6’5” defender from California who will return to the USA National Development team in the fall.

Vojtech Strondala, yet another from Brno, restored the three-goal cushion for Czech Republic just over two minutes later and the home team carried a 4-1 cushion into the third.

The Americans showed an interest in getting back into this one at the start of the third period, Jack Drury, a 17-year-old forward from Winnetka, IL who will be a part of the USHL’s Waterloo Black Hawks this falls, sank a powerplay tally just 50 seconds in, from Jack Randl, a 17-year-old forward from Carpentersville, IL who will play with the Omaha Lancers and Christian Krygier, a 17-year-old defenseman from Novi, MI on his way to returning to the Lincoln Stars.

Despite carrying the play for the next several minutes, the Americans were unable to get any further and Micha Kvasnica, 17 and headed for the HC Frydek-Mistek Division 2 pro team this fall buried the goal that took the fight out of the Americans a little more than eight minutes later.

Jakub Lauko, 17 added another a little over a minute later and Jenik scored his second with 42 seconds to play before Blake McLaughlin, a 17-year-old forward from Grand Rapids, MN notched a final goal for the Americans 17 seconds from the buzzer. Gavin Hain, also 17, from Grand Rapids, MN collected an assist along with Krygier.

The loss dropped the US Squad to 1-2 in its three round robin games, the 2-1 win against Switzerland sandwiched between lopsided losses to Sweden and Czech Republic who grabbed the top two positions and spots in the Medal semi-finals.

The USA will play one more game on Friday, matchup up against Finland in a battle for fifth place classification.

In the other Breclav game Wednesday, Sweden earned a 4-2 win against Switzerland. Meanwhile, at Bratislava, Slovakia, Russia earned a 3-1 decision against Finland and Canada got by Slovakia 6-1.

Because of those games, the medal semi-finals will pit Sweden against Canada and Russia against Czech Republic while the other Classification match will have Switzerland taking on Slovakia for seventh place.