2017-18 National Men's Team

CANADA DOWNED BY CZECHS AT CHANNEL ONE CUP

JASON LA ROSE

MOSCOW, Russia - Matt Ellison (Duncan, B.C./Metallurg Magnitogorsk, KHL) opened the scoring on a second-period power play, but Canada's National Men's Team dropped a 4-1 decision to the Czech Republic on Friday at the 2017 Channel One Cup.

The loss drops the Canadians' record to 1-1 at the round-robin tournament. They will close out their schedule at the pre-Olympic event against the host Russians on Saturday (9 a.m. ET/6 a.m. PT).

The Czechs held a narrow 6-5 advantage in shots on goal in the first period, but most of those came early; Canada held the Europeans without a shot for more than 17 minutes into the second period.

Ellison struck first at 11:42 of the middle frame; with the Canadians playing a man up, he wired a shot through a perfect screen from René Bourque (Lac La Biche, Alta./Djurgårdens IF, SHL)and past the glove of Czech goaltender Pavel Francouz to make it 1-0.

They looked set to take that lead to the second intermission, but Michal Repik snuck in behind the Canadian defence and slipped a shot underneath netminder Barry Brust (Swan River, Man./HC Fribourg-Gottéron, NLA) with 30.8 seconds left to pull the Czechs even after 40 minutes.

Vojtech Mozik netted the game-winning goal on the power play at 6:53 of the third period, blasting a slap shot past Brust from the top of the circle, before Martin Erat and Repik added empty-net goals in the final minute to round out the scoring.

The Czechs finished with a 22-17 edge in shots, with half coming in the final stanza.