Czech Ice-Hockey Team Wins World Championship Bronze

Czech Republic rallied to defeat the United States 8-4 in the bronze-medal match at the men’s IIHF World Championship in Tampere, Finland, on Sunday.

The United States held a 3-1 lead after the first period, but Czechia replied with seven goals, including six in the final frame, to secure the win.

David Pastrnak led the way for the winning side with a hat trick. Jiri Cernoch, Jiri Smejkal, Roman Cervenka and David Kampf rounded out the scoring for Czechia.

Karson Kuhlman scored twice for the U.S. along with goals from Adam Gaudette and Thomas Bordeleau.

The Czechs were beaten in the semi-finals of the competition on Saturday; after scoring the opening goal against Canada through David Krejčí, they eventually lost 1:6, with the Canadians scoring three times in little over three minutes in the third period to pull ahead.

The U.S. faced Czechia earlier in this year’s world championship, with the Czechs gaining a 1-0 win on May 23 in the preliminary round.

The gold-medal game takes place also today as Canada and host Finland face off. The countries are meeting in the championship game for the third tournament in a row.

Canada is looking to repeat as gold medalists after defeating Finland last year in the final. The country is also eyeing its 28th gold medal at the event; it is guaranteed to earn its 52nd total medal.

Finland is out to avenge falling to the Canadians in 2021. The Finns earned the title in 2019, taking down Canada for the country’s third gold medal.