Moose Jaw Warriors forward Martin Rysavy and Team Czechia couldn’t have asked for a better start to the World Junior Hockey Championship through their first two games.
And no win was bigger than their tournament opener on Boxing Day.
Czechia stunned pre-tournament favourite Canada with a 5-2 victory before a packed house at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax before taking a 9-0 win over Austria in their second game of the tournament on Wednesday night.
The wins have Czechia in first place in their pool at 2-0 heading into their match-up with Sweden on Thursday.
While Canada’s Shane Wright opened scoring in the tournament opener on Monday night, late goals from David Spacek and David Moravec gave Czechia a 2-1 lead after the first period.
Regina Pats defenceman Stanislav Svozil made it 3-1 Czechia 44 seconds into the second, and after Connor Bedard got one back for Canada just over a minute later, Jaroslav Chmelar and Matous Mensik scored 33 seconds apart late in the period to make it a 5-2 game.
Neither team scored in the third, and Czechia had their huge tournament-opening win.
Rysavy saw 11:42 of ice time over 18 shifts and had a first-period tripping penalty while finishing minus-one.
Things weren’t nearly as close in Czechia’s second contest, as they took a 3-0 lead out of the first period and led 7-0 through two.
Jiri Kulich had a hat trick to lead Czechia’s offence, while Kelowna Rockets forward Gabriel Szturc scored twice to go along with single markers from David Spacek, Jakub Brabenec, Alex Cech and Petr Hauser.
Tri-City Americans goaltender Tomas Suchanek had a pair of assists to set a single-game record for points by a netminder.
Rysavy had 19 shifts for 14:32 of ice time and had four shots on goal.
The news wasn’t as good for Slovakia and Moose Jaw Warriors forward Robert Baco as they dropped a 5-2 decision to Finland in their opener on Tuesday night.
The two teams were tied 1-1 after the first before Finland took control of things with three second-period goals.
Baco -- playing on a line with Dej Frantisek and Marcel Stefancik -- saw seven shifts for 5:56 of ice time and was minus-one.
Peter Repcik scored both goals for Slovakia.
Slovakia returns to the ice Wednesday night when they take on the United States.
You can follow along with all the scores and information from the World Junior Hockey Championship at www.iihf.com.
