'You Want To Show Off'

HERNING, Denmark - A few Dan Vladar jerseys, adorned with No. 30 on the back in place of his more familiar No. 80, could be spotted amidst the sea of Pastrnaks and Cervenkas and Jagrs through the bipartisan crowd of 9,882.

So, too, could be spied the slight yellow lines on his predominantly red pads that matched Czechia's primary colour.

The grin?

Visible throughout the arena even through his mask - it, too, airbrushed with the Flaming C.

Rightfully so after the Flames netminder, at age 27, officially made his men's national team debut with his home country of Czechia in a 7-2 win against host Denmark on Monday at the 2025 IIHF World Championship.

"Nerves? A little bit," Vladar admitted. "Every time you make your debut you want to show off. Obviously, it was a big game for me.

"I'm glad we won."

Vladar, who kicked out 727 pucks in a tick over 1,781 minutes of work as a member of the Flames this season, turned aside an additional 29 bonus shots and even added a secondary assist in going the full distance in his freshman showing on the international ice.

Just two blemishes to show for the 60-minute effort.

The shutout snapper was a shoulder-shrugging rebound that he kicked out - and had deflect back in - with Czechia holding a cruise-control like 4-0 lead. The only other puck to best Vladar beat him with his side staking a 5-1 lead.

From there? Victory.

"It's really nice to get those three points that you're not used to from overseas, right?" Vladar said. "No, no, no. It's been great. Obviously, the first period was tough playing against the home team with us on a back-to-back and them resting. We knew they were going to come with the full house here and they had their fans behind their backs. The fans were buzzing in the first period.

"I thought from the puck drop from the second we dominated and we showed our creativity up front. I thought we played a really good last 40 minutes."

The win is Vladar's first in official IIHF capacity since suiting up for Czechia at the 2015 World Under-18 Championship.

It also puts him, officially, in the column of goalies to win for Czechia on the World stage alongside the likes of Dominik Hasek, Roman Turek, Tomas Vokoun, and Ondrej Pavelec - all goaltenders he looked up to as a young lad.

He'll have a ways to go to climb that list.

And he's not willing to rank his win just yet.

"I don't want to go that way," said Vladar, who has also represented his home side at the World Under-17 Challenge and World Junior Championship.

"Obviously, you're just moving on in your career and you're making these accomplishments and having success making them coming true. It's nice, but I don't want to rank anything. I want to keep playing and keep moving forward."

It's the same approach he holds for the tournament.

Czechia, the defending gold medalist at the World Championship, is off to an eight-point effort through three games, by way of a 2-1-0-0 record.

He's logged one of the two regulation wins, with Utah Mammoth stopper Karel Vejmelka getting the nod in the two other starts.

So, as sentimental as Vladar might be about fulfilling a lifelong goal, the mission isn't done yet.

The goal is gold.

"Yeah, 100%," Vladar said. "It's a dream come true for me.

"But at the same time I'm not a young guy anymore. I know what it takes. It's a long tournament. You can't get high or low. You have to keep grinding and appreciate every single save and every single win. That's what we're doing.

"We have to learn from this game, good or bad, and keep moving forward."