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The heavily-favoured Czechs dominated the first two periods, out-shooting India 34-11, but the longer the scoreless tie lasted, the better the chance of an upset. The 4,932 fans had come to the game in Pardubice expecting to see their team advance, but tension rose in the building as the fear of being on the wrong side of an upset started creeping in.
There had been chances. Especially late in the second period, when India was assessed two penalties on the same play, giving the Czechs a two-man advantage for a full two minutes. They came oh-so-close to scoring, with Tomas Kudela’s shot squeezing through a fallen Toor and rolling almost parallel to the goal line just outside of the post. Then a few seconds before the horn, another drive from Kudela got through Toor, but the Indian goalie kicked the loose ball away from the goal line without even seeing it.
Sometimes you’ve got to be lucky to be good, and good to be lucky. But Toor’s luck wouldn’t last forever.
With just over five minutes to play, the teams started going end to end, trading chances. First Jagpal Sandhu unleashed a wrister that seemed labelled for the top corner, but the glove of Lukas Heczko came out to knock it away as the arena collectively exhaled. The Czechs rushed back 2-on-1 the other way, but Jan Bily fired a one-timer wide. And then with 4:08 to play, a goal. Heczko tried to glove J.K. Gill’s tight-angle shot, but he couldn’t hold on and it dribbled in front, where Paul Chima was there to sweep it in five-hole.
The building went silent, as India seemed on the verge of an upset, but the Czechs got a breath of life when Smiter Kaila was called for holding 12 seconds later. On the power play, Jan Pospisil’s point shot hit Toor’s blocker and popped up in the air. The goalie tried to catch it but missed, and in the ensuing scramble Tomas Wrobel knocked it over the goal line - but it was swept out so quickly that video replay was needed to confirm it.
With 3:14 left, it seemed overtime was on the horizon. But not so fast, as the Czechs went right back to the attack, and just nine seconds later the ball was, somehow, in the Indian net again. It was so strange looking that video replay was again needed, as the arena was in absolute bedlam. From below the goal line, Bily swept at the ball, and it banked in off Toor and across the line - the third goal in a span of 1:03 - to give the Czechs a 2-1 lead.
And Bily added an empty-netter to make it a 3-1 final, and left everyone who had witnessed it to look at each other, in order to confirm if what they had witnessed had really happened.
Reactions
Jaroslav Pavlík (assistant coach, Team Czech Republic): Firstly, I must congratulate Team India, who played very smart ball hockey today in terms of defence. They know where their strength lies. Sometimes we had some luck in this game, sometimes we didn’t. We had lots of chances in the beginning, but later it became a little bit more balanced. Our offensive game came back to us at the end, but as I said, it was a very good tactical game on their part.
George Chahal (assistant coach, Team India): An amazing game, an amazing crowd, outstanding atmosphere to this game. The Czech team came out with a lot of energy and I think we weathered the storm and did really well early on to keep them at bay, and our goaltender was outstanding - he made some amazing saves. When we killed the 5-on-3, that gave us a lot of momentum heading into the third period. Then we had a goal that really uplifted us, but they came right back at us. I wish the Czechs the best of luck because they’re probably the best team we’ve faced, with their overall energy and strong play. I’d just like to say thank you to the fans, to everybody in Pardubice and the Czech Republic who came out to watch us play.
