Moose Jaw Warriors forward Martin Rysavy and Team Czechia will be playing for a medal at the World Junior Hockey Championship, with the only question being which colour they’ll be battling for.
And while fellow Warriors 19-year-old Robert Baco and Slovakia fell short of the hardware, there’s no question they put a heck of a scare into the pre-tournament favourites.
Rysavy and Czechia rolled to a 9-1 win over Switzerland in their quarter-final in Halifax on Monday, while Baco and Slovakia dropped a hard-fought 4-3 decision in overtime to Canada.
That means Czechia will face Finland in one semifinal and Canada takes on the United States in the other on Wednesday, with the winners advancing to the gold medal game and losers dropping to the bronze contest on Thursday.
It was nothing but good news for Czechia in their first playoff game, as they took a 3-1 lead out of the first period and led 7-1 through two,
Rysavy continued to play on the third line with Jakub Kos and Matous Mensik and didn’t figure into the offence, finishing the game with 18 shifts for 12:44 of ice time and recording a single shot on net. He did take a first-period hooking penalty, but his opponent was hit with an embellishment minor at the same time.
Baco and Slovakia ended up giving Canada all they could handle in their quarter-final, finding a way to push back no matter what the tournament hosts threw at them.
That included the second period when Baco scored his second of the tournament with 13:18 gone in the frame.
Baco went hard to the net and as Peter Repcik carried the puck around the goal, set up in front of Canada goaltender Thomas Milic. Repcik found Baco alone at the top of the crease, and he’d put a quick shot low blocker side to make it a 3-2 Canada edge.
Slovakia then tied the game midway through the third, sending the contest to overtime.
There, Connor Bedard has done what he has for Canada all tournament: score goals. After a flurry of chances, the Regina Pats phenom worked his way through a handful of Slovakia defenders and tucked the puck around goaltender Adam Gajan to give Canada the 4-3 win.
Baco -- who took the ice alongside Frantisek Dej and Alex Sotek -- finished with 27 shifts for 14:29 of ice time and recorded three shots on goal while finishing plus-one.
Baco finishes the tournament with two goals and two points in four games while also going plus-two.
The World Junior Hockey Championship bronze medal game is set for 1:30 p.m. Moose Jaw time on Thursday, with the gold medal game dropping the puck at 5:30 p.m. Both games can be found on TSN, and you can follow along with scores online at www.iihf.com.
