The WEHT Final Recap: Lessons Learned After Czechia’s 5-0 Win Over Finland
If you’ve watched this Czech team grind through three Women’s Euro Hockey Tour stops, Friday night in Hämeenlinna felt different from the opening faceoff. Same rival opponent. Same electric recent history. Very different story.
Czechia beat Finland, yes. But they also controlled them, 5-0, in what was comfortably their most complete performance of the season. A fast start with layered defending, clinical finishing, and, at long last, real depth scoring all the way through the lineup. It doesn’t erase the frustrating start to the season, but in a season defined so far by offensive frustration, this was the night where everything finally clicked.
First period: starting on time, for real this time
The theme all week in Lahti was “we have to start on time.” Against Sweden, they didn’t. Against Finland, they absolutely did. From the opening shifts, Czechia played at a higher tempo than the hosts: tighter gaps, quicker exits, better support through the neutral zone. Finland were chasing the puck instead of dictating, which has not often been the case in this rivalry.
The breakthrough came at 13:00. After a sharp change in the offensive zone, Kristýna Kaltounková recovered from an awkward fall, popped back into the slot, and attacked the space in front of the net. The puck found her, she adjusted, and swept it past the Finnish goalie for 1-0. It was exactly the kind of inside-lane, second-effort play Czechia has been begging for from its stars.
Then, in the final minute of the period, they struck again. A point shot from Daniela Pejšová created chaos, Tereza Plosová occupied the front, and Denisa Křížová picked up the rebound between the circles, calmly lifting a backhand under the bar for 2-0.
As Křížová told CeskyHokej.cz, the group wanted to lean into simple principles, pucks to the net, traffic in front, second chances, and the goal was basically a picture of that idea.
Two goals, both from getting inside. A 2-0 lead after 20 minutes. For once, it was Finland stuck with the slow start.
Second period: Finland Push
If Finland were going to climb back into the game, the second period was their window. They raised their pace, started winning a few more races, and forced Czechia into two penalty kills that could have flipped the momentum. Instead, the story of the middle frame became rookie Julie Pejšová.
In just her second-ever senior start, the young netminder didn’t have to deal with huge volume, Finland finished with 16 shots total, but what she did face was dangerous. The key moment came midway through the game, when a clean Finnish chance in tight looked like a sure 2–1…
From there, the Czech penalty kill stayed calm, and the group in front of her made sure that the majority of Finnish looks came from the outside. A goalless second period could have felt nervy at 2-0, instead, it felt like Czechia had bent and then quietly taken the game back in their hands.
Third period: the offensive dam finally breaks
The third period was everything this team has been trying to be for months. Czechia came out of the intermission with pace and intention, and within five minutes they turned a controlled game into a rout.
At 45:00, Křížová once again drove the play, spinning a pass across to Tereza Plosová on the left side. Plosová stepped in and buried it for 3-0, a beautifully simple play that rewarded directness and speed.
Just 53 seconds later, Vendula Přibylová created a goal out of nothing. She jumped on a telegraphed Finnish pass, picked it off, walked in slipped in a shot for 4-0.
At 54:00, Linda Vocetková added the final touch, drifting into soft ice between the circles and finishing a feed from Barbora Juříčková for 5-0, her first career goal for the senior national team.
By that point, the ice was tilted entirely toward the Finnish end. Czechia were faster, sharper, and more connected than the hosts. The closing minutes felt less like survival and more like an exhibition of the identity this team has been chasing all year, a five-player pressure.
Depth scoring, at last
The single biggest storyline from this game, and maybe from the entire Lahti leg, is this:
Czechia finally got true depth scoring. Of the five goals, one came from the top-line finisher (Kaltounková), one from a veteran PWHL leader (Křížová), and three from the “bottom six” / secondary group (Plosová, Přibylová, Vocetková). Every line except the first put a goal on the board. For three WEHT stops, the conversation around this team has been dominated by: Where will the secondary offense come from? Can the younger players and middle-six forwards finish chances, or will it always come down to the same 3-4 names? What happens if the first line is merely “fine” instead of dominant?
Against Finland, the answers finally pointed in the right direction.
Plosová scored from the middle six. Přibylová produced a pure work-rate goal (classic Vendula). Vocetková, one of the youngest players on the roster, got her senior breakthrough. It wasn’t just that the puck went in though it was how, through pressure, anticipation, movement without the puck, and finishes from the kind of spaces that matter in Olympic games.
If Czechia can carry even half of that depth scoring into February, the entire shape of their offense changes.
Křížová: ČWHR’s Player of the Tournament
Across the three games in Finland, Denisa Křížová quietly became the heartbeat of this team, and in the Finland game, she was impossible to miss. A goal in the first period (2-0), primary setup on the 3–0 goal for Plosová, constantly around the puck, dictating pace and using her experience to calm or accelerate shifts as needed.
After the game, speaking to CeskyHokej.cz, she called it “our best performance…” and emphasized that the group wanted to play “the way we want to at the Olympics” fast, connected, and committed to their identity. It’s hard to argue. For us, she’s the clear ČWHR Player of the Tournament: a veteran who showed exactly how a top-six forward should look in a pre-Olympic window.
Pejšová: two starts, two shutouts, and a real Olympic question
Quietly, another narrative has become impossible to ignore. With this 16-save clean sheet against Finland, Julie Pejšová now has: 2 senior national team starts, 2 shutouts, 2 wins, including one against a not insignificant home Finnish side. Yes, the defense in front of her did an excellent job of limiting high-danger looks. Yes, the volume was manageable (in both games). But at this level, those are still 120 minutes against Switzerland and Finland without a puck behind her. That matters.
For a team that already knows what it has in Klára Peslarová and likely Michaela Hesová, Lahti might have just answered another question: is Pejšová a serious candidate for the Olympic third-goalie role?
On this evidence, the answer is leaning toward yes.
The Finland factor: not full-strength, but symbolically huge
Both teams were missing pieces. Neither side iced a perfect Olympic lineup. Everyone knows that. But sports don’t only live in the world of “asterisks” and caveats. Symbolically, this result carries weight. Finland are, without question, Czechia’s peer equal and biggest European rival. They’ve won the last three big games between the two nations, including that unforgettable bronze-medal comeback on Czech ice. They’ve been the “final boss” on this program’s climb into the elite.
A 5-0 win in their building, in the final serious test before the Olympics, does a few things for them. It doesn’t erase what happened in April, that wound will only really heal in a medal game, but it does move the metaphorical monkey off Czechia’s back, at least a little. And it tightens the future narrative. If these teams meet in Milan, it now feels less like “Finland with the edge” and more like true 50-50 territory.
For a rivalry this tight, that psychological shift matters…
Momentum, at last, after three frustrating WEHT stops
Zooming out, the Finnish WEHT stop ends with Czechia beating Switzerland, losing a self-inflicted game to Sweden, and then dismantling Finland 5-0 to finish second in the tournament, level on points with Sweden and above the hosts.
More importantly, they finally leave a Euro Tour stop with positive offensive momentum. After months of talking about:lack of productivity, poor starts, missed chances, and an attack that never quite reflected the club form of its stars, Lahti closes with five goals, depth scoring, and a game where Czechia looked like the team they keep insisting they are.
No one in the camp is naïve enough to think a single night solves everything. But if you were going to script a final performance before Milan–Cortina, it would look a lot like this one.
The task now is the same one Carla MacLeod and her staff have been repeating for months:
Make this the standard, not the exception.
