1994 Czech Republic national ice hockey team

Ice hockey
Czech Republic arrived to Lillehammer as the unbeaten winner of the recent Globen Cup, the Swedish part of the European Hockey Tour. The Olympic tournament however had a rather different result. Finland, at the start of the tournament not supposed to be a favorite, was in the lead since the fifth minute power play goal, following three games added the compulsory victories but only win over Germany coached by Luděk Bukač was supported by a good play. The team was not able to beat any of the strong European team and lost to Russia 3-4 to leave it in fourth place in group but to finish only third behind Finland, which hammered Russia, and Germany.

The standings in the other group set a tie against Canada in the quarterfinals. The Czechs lead twice in the game and Canada scores the tying goal five minutes to the end of regulation. In the overtime, Paul Kariya scored the sudden-death power-play goal (Horák served the penalty). The Czechs had to settle with the 5-8th places classification games and avoided surprise beating United States 5-3 after losing to them 0-2 early in the first period. The 5th to 6th place game was the first confrontation of former compatriots, but Slovakia was overmotivated and outplayed 7-1 (the game was decided in the first period, despite losing 0-1 in third minute, the Czechs won it 5-1).

Canada eliminated Czech Republic also in the 1994 World Championships; the two 5th place finishes forced Ivan Hlinka to withdraw. His successor Luděk Bukač then leads Czech Republic to the 1996 World Championships title, first since 1985 and first of four titles in six years.


 * Squad:
 * Goalkeepers: Petr Bříza, Roman Turek, Jaroslav Kameš
 * Defenders: Drahomír Kadlec, Jan Vopat, Bedřich Ščerban, Antonín Stavjaňa, Jiří Vykoukal, Miloslav Hořava, Jiří Veber
 * Forwards: Otakar Janecký, Jiří Kučera, Jiří Doležal, Tomáš Sršeň, Martin Hosták, Kamil Kašťák, Pavel Geffert, Petr Hrbek, Petr Hrbek, Richard Žemlička, Jan Alinč, Radek Ťoupal, Roman Horák, Tomáš Kapusta
 * Coaches: Ivan Hlinka, Stanislav Neveselý


 * Results