CZECH REPUBLIC WINS BRONZE IN SHOOTOUT

By Keith Borkowsky

REGINA — Stanislav Polodna’s two shootout goals gave the Czech Republic a bronze-medal victory at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.

As Polodna fired his shot through Pacific goalie Scott Orth’s legs, the entire Czech bench flooded the ice in celebration after the 5-4 win over Pacific Wednesday.

The Czechs took an early lead at the 1:38 mark of the opening frame. Tomas Karpov was wide open in front of the net and buried his power-play chance between Orth’s legs. Thomas Kundratek chipped in an assist.

That seemed to spark the Pacific offence into action. Kyle Turris fired a shot off  the post, beating Czech goalie Marek Benda for a power-play marker at the 2:27 mark. Zach Boychuk assisted.

Dustin Sylvester added another Pacific power-play goal from Thomas Hickey and Nick Ross at the 6:32 mark.

Petr Kafka’s pair of goals in the first and second periods gave the Czechs a short-lived 3-2 advantage, until Tyler Ennis netted the equalizer midway through the second frame.

Ross set up Pacific’s go-ahead goal 48 seconds into the third period, feeding Dana Tyrell at the side of the net with a cross-ice pass.

With 46.8 seconds left in the third period, extra-attacker Tomas Schmidt sniped a game-tying power-play goal for the Czechs. Kafka picked up his third point of the game with the lone assist.