Czech team withstands furious rally from Hossa, Slovakia to advance to quarter-final

The Czech Republic's men's ice hockey team underachieved in a tough Group C in the preliminary round. They trudged through the first week of the tournament beset by controversy at home and hamstrung by dubious coaching decisions in Sochi. 

It's likely that the "dysfunction" surrounding the team may have obscured the likelihood that this Czech side remains a relatively deep and dynamic team, and could make for a tough out in the elimination round.

On Tuesday the Czechs faced off against bitter rival Slovakia in the qualifying playoff round. The score looked close at the end in that it was a 5-3 victory (with one of the Czech goals being scored into an empty net) that featured several tense moments in the third period. 

But really, the Czech side outclassed Slovakia rather thoroughly on Tuesday. The score only remained close because of an otherworldly performance from Marian Hossa, combined with some unimpressive goaltending from Ondrej Pavelec.

Overall this was an impressive performance from a team that didn't look too hot during the preliminary round. The advancing Czech side will now face a stiff test in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, and will be considered a massive underdog against the United States. 

Scoring Chances:

A scoring chance is counted any time a team directs a shot cleanly on-net from within the area where the most goals go in - between and below the circles. You can get a handle on what the scoring chance area looks like here. Shots on goal and misses are counted, but blocked shots are not (unless the player who blocks the shot is “acting like a goaltender”). Generally speaking, we are more generous with the boundaries of the scoring chance area if there is dangerous puck movement immediately preceding the scoring chance, or if the scoring chance is screened. Tip shots are only counted if they're obvious sets. 

We'll start with the Slovakian team's individual scoring chance contributions:

Hossa's performance on Tuesday was something else. 

The old Chicago Blackhawks warhorse dragged probably the most disappointing team in the Olympic tournament by their bootstraps back into a game they had no business contesting closely. Hossa was in on over 42% of Slovakia's quality looks on Tuesday, and his individual performance in this game should probably rank among those put forth by many gold medal winners in a variety of different sports in Sochi over the past ten days.

The problem for Slovakia, however, was depth. Beyond Hossa there just wasn't much going on in terms of scoring chance creation, especially among the other Slovakian forwards. Not only did Slovakia's depth forwards struggle to create much offensively, but they made the Czechs secondary and tertiary units look like world-beaters throughout the game.

Let's get to those Czech secondary and tertiary units, and look at the individual scoring chance contributions from the Czech skaters on Tuesday:

In terms of major deployment changes, the Czech side had a few on Tuesday, most of which worked out brilliantly. David Krejci - invisible all tournament to this point - was bumped up to the top power-play unit, and he scored one of the prettiest goals of the Olympics on a one-timer in the first period. He was also significantly more involved offensively throughout.

Defenseman Michal Barinka found himself scratched, and his minutes were gobbled up by Ladislav Smid, who was an instant upgrade for the Czech defense. Meanwhile the Czech team rode their third-line on Tuesday, giving a newly formed group of Martin Erat, Martin Hanzal and Jakub Voracek roughly three more minutes of run on Tuesday. That line in particular gave a top-heavy Slovakian side fits.

On the negative side of the ledger for the Czech side was the play of Ondrej Pavelec. Pavelec stopped 29 of 32 shots on Tuesday, which seems decent enough, but he was only tested by 12 "difficult shots" and only stopped nine. Against a skilled American side, Pavelec will have to be better on Wednesday. 

Overall the Czechs could give the United States a scare in the quarterfinals, but their big disadvantage is in net. In particular, Pavelec has struggled enormously on the second game of back-to-backs in his career:

Here are the team chance totals from Tuesday's qualifying round playoff:

These numbers are skewed somewhat by the four goal lead the Czech side built in the opening 35 minutes or so of the game. Score effects and Marian Hossa took over somewhat in the third, and it's worth suggesting that the 14-to-12 even-strength totals, for example, don't reflect the lopsided way Tuesday's game actually played out.

What's important to note is that with the score tied, the Czech Republic out-chanced Slovakia four-nil on Tuesday, and with the score close they out-chanced them 9-to-2. 

Final score aside, that's a lambasting, and one that augurs well for a Czech team that will need to be very good in front of Pavelec to have a chance against America's talented shooters.