Czechia 2–1 Switzerland: Hesová Steals the Opener.
One joint practice, three games in three days. It’s a brutally quick pace. Lahti got the version of Czechia that knows how to suffer through a game and still walk away with the points. In their opening game of the Finnish WEHT stop, Czechia beat Switzerland 2-1 in a tight, nervy win.
First Period
Czechia actually opened the night the way you’d want this team to start more often. Ten minutes in, Michaela Pejzlová did exactly what she’s been doing all year in Ambri: slipped into space, timed her route perfectly, and ripped a shot post to make it 1-0. It was a very “of course it’s Pejzlová” goal, smart read, clean release, and punishment for a tiny pocket of room the Swiss gave her. And we cannot forget to mention the feed from #10 Denisa Křížová who found Michaela’s stick perfectly. For a while, it looked like that was going to be the story: one shot of class deciding a cagey opener
Second Period
If we’re honest, the game flipped in the middle frame, and not in Czechia’s favor. Switzerland took over the tempo, won races, and stretched shifts in the Czech end. The Czechs spent stretches stuck in their zone, a lot of pucks dying on the walls instead of exiting with control. It looked very much like Ängelholm’s worst stretches: too passive without the puck, too slow once they had it.
The difference this time was in net. Hesová read plays cleanly, tracked through traffic, and bailed out breakdowns more than once. Where the game against Finland in Sweden sagged away in the third, this one survived the second because she refused to let it spiral.
Teammates knew it, too, post-game, Klára Hymlárová was basically blunt: that second period “didn’t go our way at all” and without Hesová they probably don’t get out of it with the lead intact.
Third Period
The third period settled back into something more balanced, still scrappy, still not exactly smooth, but less tilted. Czechia finally got the cushion they were hunting for at 58:14. Sára Čajanová on a pass from Vendula Příbylová, swiped at a shot right in front of the Swiss goalkeeper, directing the puck to Hymlárová who clinically finished and swept it into the net. Game over, right?
Switzerland refused to go quietly. With time bleeding away, Alina Marti took matters into her own hands and finally solved Hesová with a slick individual move just 32 seconds before the horn. Fittingly, Hesová laughed afterward that Marti “always seems to score on me” when they face each other, a little private rivalry tucked inside the bigger one.
There was just enough time left for Czech fans to sweat one more Swiss rush, but the clock finally did its job. No miracle comeback, no collapse, just a 2-1 opening win and three points in the bank.
What this game actually told us
Hesová is very much in the Olympic conversation (not that it’s a big surprise). For a team that already knows what it has in Peslarová, that kind of performance from her is huge. The blue line can bend without breaking. There were messy exits and some scrambled line changes, but structurally, this group still knows how to compress the middle of the ice when it has to. When they tightened up late, Switzerland were mostly left to the outside until the Marti goal. And lastly, the scoring pattern is still familiar. Once again, it’s seasoned vets: Pejzlová from a shooting pocket, Hymlárová making something happen at the net-front. What’s still missing is that extra layer of depth scoring and a power play that tilts the ice. This game didn’t answer that question…
But for a team that came out of Ängelholm with more questions than answers, starting Lahti with a regulation win against a near A-group Swiss side, after one shared practice and a brutal schedule ahead, is nothing to brush off. We’ll see what tomorrow brings…
