Legend:
Let’s celebrate
Pardubice’s Lukas Radil.
Keystone/Melanie Duchene
- Dynamo Pardubice spectacularly beat Team Canada 4-3 in the second semi-final of the Spengler Cup.
- In the final the Czechs will face HC Davos on Sunday afternoon.
- Pardubice is 1:3 behind shortly before the end, but still manages to turn things around.
With four minutes left, everything pointed to Team Canada reaching the final. The North Americans appeared to be leading comfortably 3-1 and heading towards the final against HC Davos. But Dynamo Pardubice did not give in yet. In the power play and with an additional field player, Lukas Radil scored to make it 2:3 after 56:04 minutes.
Paulovic makes the turnaround perfect
Suddenly Canada started shaking again. Meanwhile, the Czechs, who soon found themselves without a goalkeeper again, pushed for an equalizer. And indeed: Martin Kaut managed the much-celebrated equalizer 1:23 minutes before the end. It got even better. 44 seconds later, Matej Paulovic shot his team into the final and the Canadians into misery.
In its third participation in the Spengler Cup, Pardubice is in the final for the first time. There the Czechs will challenge hosts Davos on Sunday afternoon (live on SRF two from 11:55 a.m.). The Graubünden team beat Frölunda 4-3 after extra time in the semi-finals in the afternoon.
The Canadians opened the score that evening. After a scoreless starting third, Jonathan Hazen was successful after just 24 seconds in the middle period. The preparatory work by Chris DiDomenico was particularly worth seeing. The Fribourg-Gottéron striker played the disc over an opposing stick to his teammate, who skilfully finished. It didn’t take long for Pardubice to respond. In the 25th minute it was Radil who scored with a blast into the right corner to make it 1-1.
Canada pulls away thanks to Grant
Turbulent scenes then occurred in the final phase of the second third. In the 38th minute, Martin Bucko scored the supposed 2-1 lead for the Czechs. After a long video study, the goal was disallowed by the referees due to goalkeeper interference. And so a little later it was the Canadians who were allowed to cheer. 1.5 seconds before the siren, Derek Grant put his team in front for the second time.
At the beginning of the final period, Pardubice had the chance to equalize again with the advantage. After losing the puck, however, Grant escaped, who didn’t miss the chance and confidently scored to make it 3-1. Team Canada was initially able to manage this lead. In the final phase, however, they let the victory that they believed was certain be taken away from them.