Today at 3:00 a.m. ET, the Czech Republic and Latvia go head-to-head live from the Bolshoy Ice Dome in Sochi as part of the men's ice hockey tournament at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia. The game can be live streamed here.
Both teams enter play looking to bounce back from losses in their opening games as the Czechs are coming off of a 4-2 loss to Sweden and Latvia was 7.9 seconds away from going to overtime in their opener until Switzerland scored the game's only goal for a 1-0 win.
The Czech Republic struggled in the early going of their opening game, falling in a 4-0 deficit that it couldn't climb out of. The Czech Republic got a bit of a lift off of goals from New Jersey Devils teammates Jaromir Jagr and Marek Zidlicky, but couldn't seal the game.
"We were just sitting back too much," said forward Patrik Elias, also of the Devils, via NHL.com. "We were passive. We didn't go. We backed off. We talked about being patient without the puck but that's what we did for the whole [first] period. We got in trouble with the penalties, they scored on it. That's simplified but that was the reason."
Elias has 33 points in 44 games for the Devils this season off of 11 goals and 22 assists.
Ondrej Pavelec was expected to get the nod in net during Czech's first game, but the team opted to go with two KHL goalies instead, but after a lackluster result Pavelec may get the nod this time around. Pavelec is 18-22-4 for the Winnipeg Jets this season with a 2.97 goals-against average and a .901 save percentage.
The Latvians played well in the first game, but the team couldn't get past an injury and a fluke bounce off of one of its players that led to a goal for Switzerland.
"We got better and better and showed that we can really compete," coach Ted Nolan said per NHL.com. "Unfortunately it's a game of mistakes and we made one when it mattered the most. ... One of our players got hit behind the boards. It was a 5-on-4 situation and we still had the puck. If we just would have thrown it in deep maybe we would have been able to kill off the last nine seconds."
The Czech Republic and Latvia search for their first wins of the tournament when they take the ice at Sochi for the Winter Olympics.
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