Women’ s Final Olympic Qualification Group C Tournament For 2022 Winter Olympics

In the second game for each team in Final Qualification Group C, the host Czechs earned their second win with a convincing 16-0 victory over Poland, who fall to 0-2 before 1139 mostly Czech fans in Chomutov, although there was a noticeable Polish contingent in attendance as well.

Katerina Mrazova led the Czech offence with two goals and four assists, while Aneta Tejralova had five assists. In her first appearance of the tournament, Viktorie Svejdova didn’t have to make a ton of saves for the shutout, but did face a couple of odd-man rushes that she came up big on. 

The Czechs wasted little time getting started, finding the net twice in the first two minutes. First, it was captain Alena Mills with a nice deflection on Aneta Tejralova’s point shot at the 52-second mark. A minute later, Dominika Laskova used her speed to motor out front and scored with a quick shot. Natalie Mlynkova made it 3-0 with a rising wrister through traffic that beat a screened Agata Kosinska at 6:02.

Poland’s lone shot on goal in the first period came on a 2-on-1 rush, with defender Julia Zielinska electing to shoot and hitting Svejdova in the shoulder.

Poland managed to kill off the lone penalty of the first period, but just 16 seconds after it ended, Mills scored her second of the game on a backdoor pass from Klara Hymlarova at 15:27. Two minutes later, Noemi Neubauerova scored the Czechs’ fifth and final goal of the opening frame.

After getting beaten on six of 17 first-period shots, Kosinska was lifted in favour of Martyna Sass, who had been brilliant against Hungary on Thursday. She could do little to stop the bleeding, however, as the Czechs were relentless in the middle frame, connecting for seven more goals on 26 shots. Mrazova alone had five shots on goal in the middle frame, scoring twice.

With her team down 10, Wiktoria Sikorska, Poland’s lone goal-scorer so far in t he tournament, had her team’s best chance to score late in the second period on a partial breakaway, but Svejdova made a stick save on the five-hole attempt.

Four more Czech goals in the third period made it a 16-0 final, with the hosts spending most of the period in control of the puck, keeping Svejdova’s shutout.

The Czechs now know will be playing Hungary tomorrow with a trip to Beijing on the line. Exactly what they need to secure qualfication will be determined in tonight’s late game between Hungary and Norway.