Czech hockey team coach Kari Jalonen.
Vienna – An unpunished tackle on the captain of the Czech hockey players, Roman Červenka, infuriated Finnish coach Kari Jalonen, whose team dominated in Vienna against home Austria and won the Euro Hockey Challenge match 6:0. Červenka had to leave the game with a bloody gash on his nose eight seconds before the end of the second period after being hit from behind by defender Thimo Nickl behind the Austrian goal. Judges Patrick Fichtner and Stefan Siegel did not evaluate the intervention as illegal.
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The forward Jiří Smejkal went to kick together with Nickle after the Czech forward went to the home player to call out his attack. When entering the final period, the Czech team received an additional two-minute penalty for late entry. “Amateur referees,” Jalonen said about the reason for the opponent's power play at the start of the third period.
“I didn't like how they reacted to the situation with Červus. It should be a penalty for five minutes and until the end of the game, because it was a stab from behind. I talked to them about it here in the corridor. And then we didn't want to go on the ice.” Jalonen described his conversation with the judges at Steffl Arena.
Canadian scoring winner and most valuable player of last year's bronze championship in Finland Červenka did not return to the game. “We'll see tomorrow, it looks like a nose, but we have to take a good look at it. We have to talk about it with the doctors and the implementation team,” Jalonen said.
Defender David Jiříček has not played since the second period, who, according to Jalonen, has problems with his hip. He will wait to see how his condition develops before Saturday's rematch with the Austrians in Brno. “It is certain that the players who did not play today will start,” said Jalonen. Goalkeeper Šimon Hrubec, defenders Stanislav Svozil, Michal Jordán, Michal Kempný and forwards Roman Horák, David Tomášek, Radan Lenc and Ondřej Beránek remained out of the game today. Goalkeeper Karel Vejmelka from Arizona will join on Friday, as well as defender Ronald Knot from Tucson from the AHL, who is scheduled to start at the Czech Games.
Jalonen was satisfied with how his team handled the duel in Vienna and that they scored even in the fifth match in preparation for the May World Championships in Riga and Tampere, a win. “We had great practices from the beginning of the week and I felt like the players were flying around the ice from the beginning of the game. They had great feet, skated a lot. I liked how we played five forwards and back. Langhamer was ready when we needed him . There were a lot of positive things. I talked about the fact that we need four lines. They all created chances and also played well defensively. They all worked well and played together,” he praised.
