At the recent world championship in Canada, the junior hockey players slipped to the final after 22 years. Although they won “only” silver, they recalled the campaigns of the party that celebrated the gold medal in 2000 and 2001. One of the key players at that time was Václav Nedorost. In the Bez frazí Plus podcast, which is prepared in cooperation with Aktuálně.cz, he recalled not only the dominance of the Czech 20s at the beginning of the millennium.
Olympic gold from Nagano, a golden hat trick from the World Championship or Jaromír Jágr with Dominik Hašek as the biggest stars of the overseas NHL. At the turn of the millennium, Czech hockey was at its peak.
However, the first success at the junior level was difficult (and didn’t even attract that much attention). In the 1990s, the 20-year-old did not win a medal and traveled to the 2000 World Championships in Sweden as an outsider.
“We went there not to be relegated. That’s why I got there too. There was a condition that only five people from overseas could start. As a result, there were an awful lot of places left for us from the Czech leagues,” recalls the former striker Nedorost, who at the time played in the extra league for České Budějovice .
“We normally had a group of death. Canada, America, Finland and the Slovaks as a dark horse,” he adds to the address of the Czech neighbors, who defended the bronze and had, for example, Marián Gáborík in their squad.
However, thanks to two wins and a draw, the Czechs surprisingly won the group by a score and eventually reached the final against Russia, who dominated the tournament. It was an unforgettable fight in its own way.
The coaching team led by Jaroslav Holík chose an extremely defensive tactic.
“When they told us the tactics and gave us notes on how we would play, it was a surprise for us. But we trusted Mr. Holík and Mr. Rulík that it would work. We really followed it. That’s why it looked the way it did. The Russians they were totally fed up, totally,” Nedorost explains. “They were playful, technically hugely dominant. They wanted to play and we disgusted them. We held them, which was not whistled so much at the time, we did damage, we played total destruction.”
“We were waiting for someone to score. But no one scored,” he adds to the game, which did not offer any goals in regular time and overtime. The Russians were active at first, but then partially adapted to the Czech tactics and did not take any risks.
“I know the Swedish fans started booing after 60 minutes because it was a game with absolutely no chances. They were wondering what kind of game it was and how these teams could get to the final. I’m not surprised, it was a terrible flop,” he laughs Underage. “If we crossed the red line and it wasn’t a two-on-two, we didn’t get into anything and threw it at their back guard and replaced them. A new five came in, got on the red light and waited.”
The tactics paid off for the Czechs, as they were more successful in raids and could celebrate their first junior title from the World Championship.
A year later, they went through the championship in Russia without defeat and defended the title relatively confidently. One of the main offensive engines of the Czech national team was Nedorost, who formed a striking line with Pavel Brendl and Zdenek Blatný. Together they collected 26 points (13+13).
Since then, only the Russians and Canadians have been able to defend the title from the World Twenty20. “Our success was underappreciated at the time,” Nedorost thinks.
