hckošice

Ice Hockey Tournaments at Nagano 1998 Czech Republic, won the so-called "Tournament of Century" to became the 1998 Olympic Champions, winning its first ever Gold From 7th to 22nd February 1998, Nagano in Japan hosted the Winter Olympic Games, and for the first time there were 2 sets of medals awarded, because altogether with the Men´s Ice Hockey tournament also the women´s ice hockey experienced its Olympic debut right during these games. The very first women´s Olympic champions became the United States, they finished undefeated throughout the whole tournament and defeated the tournament favorite Canada in the final match 3-1. The men´s title went for the first time to the Czech Republic, winning the so-called "tournament of Century" a name received because this tournament also entered to the history with the first ever participation of the NHL players. All matches were played at the Big Hat and at the Aqua Wing Arena in Nagano, Japan. Czech Republic won it´s first ever Gold medal, becomming the seventh country to win the Olympic Ice Hockey grail. This tournament was also the first ever to be contested by NHL (National Hockey League) players. The NHL allowed their players to enter the Olympics, thanks a organized 17 days break in the most famous Ice Hockey league, but not all teams had the same privilege. In fact NHL allowed its players to play only from the second round, This totally unfair decision hardly hampered the campaigns of Germany and Slovakia, both of whom failed to qualify for the final group stage. Also the final group stage was criticized as being meaningless since all of the teams qualified for the quarter-finals. The format was eventually changed for the 2006 tournament in an effort to address these criticisms. The format of the mens tournament was really strange. 14 teams entered the competition, but only the top 6 were directly seeded in the main tournament second phase, the remaining 8 teams had to play a sort of qualification first phase. These 8 countries not allowed to field NHLers were divided into 2 preliminary groups A and B and only the Group winners advanced to the main phase. Kazakhstan and Belarus surprisingly topped the groups ahead of Slovakia and Germany in their respective pools and reached the main tournament. In the second round the NHL players finally entered the Olympics to the enjoyment of all Ice Hockey fans. Russia topped the Group 1 ahead f the Czech Republic, Finland and the qualifier Kazakhstan who finished pointless with the overall score 6-25 from the three encounters against the "NHLers" 2-9 with Russia, and 2-8 with the Czechs and Finns. Russia beating the Czechs 2-1 in the last match for the groups 1st place. Russia was satisfied with its result meaning in the quarter final they had to play the easiest opponent from the other group - Belarus. The Belarussians as expected finished last in this group, but after the group phase the organizers found that the Swede Ulf Samuelsson who played all 3 matches was not eligible to play since he already got the American citizenship and the rules didn´t allowed him to play for his former country. Immediately all Sweden´s result were annuled meaning Sweden was send to the last 4th place. This ofc wasn´t appreciated by the Russians as they had to face Sweden in the play-offs despite winning their group, Russia made an appeal and their protest was approved, the Swedens results were returned only Samuelsson was sent home from the Olympics. Sweden was reinstated to the 2nd place behind Canada, group winner and in front of USA 3rd and pointless qualifier Belarus. Both Canada and the United States were heavily favoured; they had previously faced off in the final of the prestigious 1996 World Cup of Hockey. but both quite surprisingly failed in the play-offs to the underestimated Czechs, USA lost in quarterfinal 1-4 and The Canadian team, despite a strong start in the round robin, lost in the semifinal match 1-2 after penalty shoot-outs, Russia after eliminating Belarus 4-1, won in the semifinal over Finland in another great match of Hockey 7-4 to reach the final against the Czechs. Disappointed Canadians with such super stars around Gretzky, Yzerman, Lindros or Shannahan eventually lost also the Bronze medal game to Finland 3-4. Canada was the absolute favorite for the gold in The first ever Olympic tournament with NHL players, but the team around the legendary Wayne Gretzky finished 4th In the final match, the Czech Republic led by a fantastic goalie Dominik Hašek and legendary players like Jaromír Jágr shut-out Russia to win the first gold medal in its history. Slovakia arrived to Nagano with different feelings, The NHL did not allowed them to play with their best NHL players in the first round, so the coach staff had a difficult times in selecting the final roster, with only local players entered the 1st round with the only goal qualify for the next phase, it started with a quite unexpected tie with Austria 2-2 in the opening game, but returned in the business by winning (even not as easily as it was expected) against Italy 4-3, the last match remaining against Kazakhstan no one have even expected any fail, peoples was already thinking which players will be replaced by the NHL players in the next round...but all these speculations were closed too early, Slovakia shockingly lost to Kazakhstan 3-4 and surprisingly failed to qualify to the main round, the poor NHL guys which travelled to Nagano could returned back to the airports and fly back to America, their Olympic campaign ended already before the start. Only Peter Bondra decided to stay and was allowed to play in the 9th place game against similarly disappointed Germany, we lost 2-4 and finished 10th. One of the best Goalie of the Ice Hockey history Dominik Hašek led the Czechs to the title marking a giant shutout in the final against Russia Final Ranking of the Men´s Tournament: 1. Czech Republic 2. Russia 3. Finland 4. Canada ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. Sweden - Main Tournament 6. United States - Main Tournament 7. Belarus - Main Tournament 8. Kazakhstan - Main Tournament ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9. Germany - First Phase 10. Slovakia - First Phase 11. France - First Phase 12. Italy - First Phase 13. Japan - First Phase 14. Austria - First Phase The undefeated United States first ever Women´s Ice Hockey Olympic champions surprised Canada in the final to win 3-1. The 1998 Olympic women's ice hockey tournament was the first year that featured women in ice hockey competition. 6 Nations attended the tournament, they played a simple Round-Robin, the top 2 teams advanced for the Gold Medal match and 3rd and 4th ranked teams played for Bronze. It was greatly anticipated that the women's gold medal match would feature Canada versus the United States. Canada was favored to come out on top as they had won all the competitions in previous years in women's hockey, with the United States perpetually finishing second, while no other national teams could match their level of play. However, the United States beat Canada in the final and became the first country to win gold in women's ice hockey at the Olympics. Like among the men´s, Finland took the bronze in the womens tourney as well beating in the 3rd place match China 4-1. There were no qualification tournaments, the host Japan played alongside the top five nations at the previous season's world championships. If the men´s Canadian team had Wayne Gretzky, also the women´s team had in this tournament a absolute legend of this sport, the young Hayley Wickenheiser started her great Olympic career Final Ranking of the Women´s Tournament: 1. United States 2. Canada 3. Finland 4. China ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. Sweden 6. Japan The Czech road to gold

Stage 14 in Bormio (ITA) December 29th, 2017 Alpine Combined Mens (1/2) 1. Alexis Pinturault 2:41.13, 2. Peter Fill 2:41.55 and 3. Kjetil Jansrud 2:41.58 Full Results HERE Video Highlights

yeah, sure there were also some very good moments this year, no doubts. to mentioning only some of them, The first ever Alpine Skiing World Championships medal for us, with the silver in the Mixed Event, + really good representation with many podiums and great performances by our women´s Slalom crew around Vlhová and Velez-Zuzulová. Kuzmina´s return to her traditional Olympic year shape is also a great moment, since she missed two complete seasons (after agreement with our federation) due maternal duties and last season without solid and complete summer preparation she competed only in few races in order to help our team to grab points for the WOG qualification, but this summer she finally had the full complete and good preparation and it was known in the first this seasons trimester. Also Peter Sagan winning the 3rd World Champion title in a row is a quite notable achievement. so if you ask me if we can be satisfied with our sports results this year, I must say yes. but all the cases mentioned in my previous post are still hard to digest, there were too many (in most cases undesrved and unfair) bad things we couldn´t do anything with them..so tha´t´s why in overall I pick --disastrous

FIS Ladies' Ski Jumping World Cup Rasnov (ROU) cancelled The Ladies' Ski Jumping World Cup in Rasnov (ROU), 06./07.01.2018 is cancelled due to warm weather forecast and lack of snow. We will inform you in the next two weeks, if the competitions will be rescheduled in Rasnov (ROU), early March 2018.

FIS Nordic Combined World Cup Otepää (EST) cancelled The FIS Nordic Combined World Cup in Otepää (EST), 06./07.01.2018 are cancelled due to lack of snow and the much too warm weather forecast and will not be rescheduled.

Stage 15 in Lienz (AUT) December 29th, 2017 Giant Slalom Womens (4/9) 1. Federica Brignone 2:05.52, 2. Viktoria Rebensburg 2:05.56 and 3. Mikaela Shifrrin 2:05.60 Full Results HERE Video Highlights

Congrats Great skiing from Brignone, great to see her back at full forces after the missed start of season. Petra with 2nd fastest second round, impressive improvement in GS, too bad she still just don´t know how to perform 2 similar high level runs in one race

Disastrous. 14th in Ice Hockey World Championships ans very close of relegation until the very last minutes of the last match of Italy is by far the (not only my) worst sports memory of the past year. The whole affair around Matej Tóth, with troubles in his biological passport caused after the surgery he had to submit, resulting in the undeserved suspension, the guy had to sit and wait at home the whole season. Only in December came the announcement that he did nothing wrong and is innocent and is free to compete...okay, but who will return him back this whole lost season and the missed chance to retain his World Champion title ? The Under 21 Football Euro, another terrible experience and second robbery for our young players, maybe the best ever generation we had and will ever have, after missed the fight for Rio thanks shameful refereeing in the play-off. missed the EURO semifinals thanks a doubtful draw in the last pool match between GER and ITA. And ofc Peter Sagan excluded from the Tour de France. Now the organizers and UCI announced he was innocent, but once again who will return him back the chance to enter the history winning the 6th green jersey in a row.. so yeah... disastrous year, hopefully the next one will be much better

Here the schedule of Day 4 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship In Buffalo, , 26 December 2017 to 5 January 2018 Friday December 29th, 2017 - Preliminary Round Day 4 Schedule (GMT -5) Group A 15:00 Canada vs United States (Outdoor Open air match in Football stadium - in New Era Field) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rest Day: Denmark, Finland, Slovakia Group B 12:00 Belarus vs Russia (in Harborcenter) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rest Day: Czech Republic, Sweden, Switzerland

This was not a surprise, this was clearly a absolute and pure miracle Man, even in our betting companies there were odds around 36.5:1 for our win but I must admit, I was extremely pleasantly surprised by the performance, a total opposite of the one day earlier game against Canada. I mean, the team spirit and the will was clearly visible, the guys just wanted to win this match, and the goal of Samuel Buček (Undrafted player !!!!) was something I´ll remember for quite a long while. Here the jewel live in our TV it was something around 4:15 AM here and it was clearly to hear huge enjoying explosions throughout the building here. I remember a huge GOALLLLL comming from my upper neighbors but yeah, to beat the reigning world champions on their soil and stop their epic winning streak is a moment of pride for our hockey and sport. now hopefully this will not be our only brilliant moment, we still have the match of our tournament to play against Denmark, only after that game we will know if this tournament is successful. Haha I see, well Italy was always considered to have great goalies.

MEN´S UNDER 20 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2018 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UNITED STATES - SLOVAKIA 2-3 Preliminary Round: Group A Goals: 32. B. Tkachuk 1:1, 57. Mittelstadt 2:2 - 25. Krivošík 0:1, 56. Krivošík 1:2, 58. Buček 2:3 at Key Bank Center December 28th, 2017. (20:00 h.) HIGHLIGHTS

MEN´S UNDER 20 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2018 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SWEDEN - CZECH REPUBLIC 3-1 Preliminary Round: Group B Goals: 6. Davidsson 1:0, 20. Pettersson 2:0, 45. A. Nylander 3:1 – 40. Zadina 2:1 at Key Bank Center December 28th, 2017. (16:00 h.) HIGHLIGHTS

MEN´S UNDER 20 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2018 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RUSSIA - SWITZERLAND 5-2 Preliminary Round: Group B Goals: 11. Syomin 1:0, 39. K. Kostin 2:1, 52. Kayumov 3:2, 59. Ivanov 4:2, 59. Abramov 5:2 - 21. Miranda 1:1, 43. Jäger 2:2 at Harborcenter December 28th, 2017. (14:00 h.) HIGHLIGHTS

MEN´S UNDER 20 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2018 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FINLAND - DENMARK 4-1 Preliminary Round: Group A Goals: 3. Koppanen 1:0, 7. Rasanen 2:0, 36. Välimäki 3:1, 38. Jokiharju 4:1 - 22. Krag-Christensen 2:1 at Key Bank Center December 28th, 2017. (12:00 h.) HIGHLIGHTS

2018 IIHF World Junior Championship In Buffalo, , 26 December 2017 to 5 January 2018 Thursday December 28th, 2017 - Preliminary Round Day 3 Results (GMT -5) Group A 12:00 Finland 4 - 1 Denmark (in Key Bank Center) 20:00 United States 2 - 3 Slovakia (in Key Bank Center) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rest Day: Canada Provisional Standing After Day 3: 1. Canada 6 pts, 2. USA 3 pts, 3. Finland 3 pts, 4. Slovakia 3 pts, 5. Denmark 0 pts. Group B 14:00 Russia 5 - 2 Switzerland (in Harborcenter) 16:00 Sweden 3 - 1 Czech Republic (in Key Bank Center) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rest Day: Belarus Provisional Standing After Day 3: 1. Sweden 6 pts, 2. Russia 3 pts, 3. Czech Republic 3 pts, 4. Switzerland 3 pts, 5. Belarus 0 pts.

I just can not believe it !

what the holly shit was this by Buček ?!?

Filip Krivošík

yay first Slovak goal in the championship came after 86 minutes well done Filip Krivošík and nice goal horn

SPENGLER CUP 2017 (in Davos, Switzerland) Friday December 29th, 2017 - Quarterfinals Schedule (GMT +1) 15:10 Dinamo Riga (LAT/KHL) vs Mountfield HK (CZE) (*winner will face Team Canada in the Semifinal) 20:15 HC Davos (SUI) vs Hämeenlinna PK (FIN) (*winner will face Team Switzerland in the Semifinal)

SPENGLER CUP 2017 (in Davos, Switzerland) Thursday December 28th, 2017 - Preliminary Round Last Day Results (GMT +1) Group Cattini 20:15 Canada vs HC Davos (SUI) 4-1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rest Day: Mountfield HK (CZE) Final Standing 1. Canada 6 pts, 2. Davos 3 pts, 3. Mountfield 0 pts. Group Torriani 15:10 Switzerland vs Hämeenlinna PK (FIN) 4-0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rest Day: Dinamo Riga (LAT/KHL) Final Standing 1. Switzerland 6 pts, 2. Riga 2 pts, 3. Hämeenlinna 1 pt.

but 52-20 shots on goal is even more humiliating statistic than a double digit score, especially in the second period when CAN send 21 shots !!! yes 21 in 20 minutes you can deduce by yourself how this match was played. But anyway, Canada was clearly above our level, in all sides, extremely speed, all players too strong on puck, especially the defencers much much better skilled than ours, this was the main difference. also the power plays, our guys spend too much times in the penalty box, Canada scored 3 goals in power plays, we had 2 and did not marked a single shot on their goal during the whole complete 4 minutes...what to say more And when we think that already 24 hours later we have to play USA which had a rest day yesterday ! I had some bad feeling about tonights result but well, once again, all these things were and are expected, since last years draw, the whole year our focus is on the do or die match vs Denmark this new years eve day, if we win that game, the tournament will be considered as successful if not...may god help us in the relegation round to continue and maintain our streak to never been relegated from the top division since our fist appearance in 1996. So tonight once again I expect the "save energy mode" from our team resulting in another blow out in the final score board

Ladies’ Audi FIS Ski World Cup competitions in Maribor (SLO) cancelled and rescheduled in Kranjska Gora (SLO) Due to lack of snow and unusually warm temperatures, the ladies’ Audi FIS Ski World Cup races scheduled in Maribor (SLO) from 6th and 7th January 2018 have been cancelled. The cancelled races are rescheduled in Kranjska Gora (SLO) with the following programme: Giant Slalom, Saturday, 06.01.2018 (09:30 / 12.15 CET) Slalom, Sunday, 07.01.2018 (09:30 /12.15 CET)

Stage 14 in Bormio (ITA) December 28th, 2017 Downhill Mens (4/9) 1. Dominik Paris 1:56.95, 2. Aksel Lund Svindal 1:56.99 and 3. Kjetil Jansrud 1:57.12 Full Results HERE Video Highlights