Czechia opens Olympic qualifying round looking to 'show the world' it belongs

MILAN -- Team Czechia is staring at two paths in front of it while preparing for a qualification round game against Team Denmark.

One path, and this is the one the Czechs would like to avoid, will lead them into a dark place they want no part of.

A loss to Denmark at Santagiulia Arena on Tuesday (10:40 a.m. ET; Peacock, CBC Gem, CBC) means Czechia will leave the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 with just one win, 6-3 against Team France.

It would likely lead to hard questions about the state of sport in the proud hockey nation.

The other path, the one the Czechs believe they'll find, leads into the chance to play No. 1 Team Canada in the quarterfinals.

The Canadians cruised to a 5-0 win against them in the preliminary round, but defeating Denmark would give Czechia a chance at pulling an all-time Olympic upset.

"Definitely we want to show the world, and we want to show our nation that we're still part of the big hockey countries," Czech defenseman Radko Gudas said. "Definitely big motivation."

At this point, the Czechs aren't happy with how they've played here. After losing to Canada, it defeated France and lost 4-3 in overtime to Team Switzerland.

Tomas Hertl said they haven't put together a full 60-minute effort to be proud of yet.

"We didn't have it the three games we played," the Vegas Golden Knights forward said. "We had always good moments, but then we switch our game and try to do something else. We have to be the best we can."

The Czechs also feel they improved in each game.

Canada rolled against them. That much was obvious. That game was never in doubt from the Canadian side.

France gave Czechia a big scare, scoring three goals in the first 5:54 of the second period to lead 3-2. Czechia came back and carried a 4-3 lead into the second intermission before making it 6-3 less than two minutes into the third.

The game against Switzerland was the Czechs' best of the preliminary round. Back and forth all the way through, Martin Necas scored to tie it 3-3 at 17:54 of the third before Dean Kukan won it for the Swiss 1:49 into overtime.

"What we said before (the tournament) is we should progress every game, we should be better and better and better, and that's how I feel we've been doing," goalie Lukas Dostal said. "Obviously, Switzerland, you cannot sleep on them. They have a good team. They play a hard system. It's always very close games against them. I had a chance to watch their game against Canada, and obviously in the end Canada outscored them, but I don't think they played a bad game. They defended well, and it was the same thing against us. It was a tough game, but, obviously, it's in the past now and we're just focusing on Denmark."

Denmark will be a challenge.

The Danes felt they were better against Team Germany in their first game, owning a 38-26 advantage in shots on goal in a 3-1 loss. They put a big scare into Team USA before losing 6-3, and they won 4-2 against Team Latvia, which defeated Germany 4-3.

"Well, they're a big, defensive, very physical team," Gudas said.

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Gudas said the Czechs have to use their speed against Denmark. It might be their biggest advantage provided they don't get sucked into playing an east-west game that slows them down.

"Don't turn the puck over as much," Gudas said. "Be quicker in our 'D' zone. I think there are still some things in our D zone that we can work on. We talked about some things, maybe a little calmness with the stick as well. Sometimes it's unfortunate with the bounces, but it's the same for both teams so that can't be an excuse.

"Overall, just more talking in the zone and making sure we're all there for each other. I really like our effort, what we're doing out there. The guys are battling for each other. The guys are working. I don't think you can really argue with us trying to win every game we play."

The difference is now they have to win or face a dark path out of Milan.

"This is the most fun part of the tournament," Gudas said. "You win one game, you continue. Those are big games. We have a lot of guys looking forward to these games. We have a lot of big players that thrive in these situations."