Captain Roman Cervenka (#10, centre) scored three goals in his 100th career WM game in a 8-1 thrashing of Kazakhstan at the 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Herning, Denmark.
photo: PHOTO: © INTERNATIONAL ICE HOCKEY FEDERATION / MATT ZAMBONIN
Five games, five straight wins for the defending World Champions. Czechia pounded Kazakhstan 8-1 on Saturday at the 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Herning to keep their streak rolling. And Czech captain Roman Cervenka scored a hat trick in his 100th career Ice Hockey World Championship game.
"That's a fun game," Cervenka told IIHF.com. "I don't want to talk about myself too much. I know the 100 games, it's a good accomplishment, but still, we have a different goal here, and that's team success. That was a good game. I didn't score a hat trick in a long time, so I enjoyed it."
The two-time World Champion, who was named the IIHF’s Male Player of the Year in 2024, debuted in 2009. He now takes over the all-time points lead at this tournament in the 21st century (87 points) from Ilya Kovalchuk (86 points). Cervenka has also tied Jaromir Jagr for the most Czech WM goals all-time (32), not counting the Czechoslovakia era.
The Czechs were solid and opportunistic, scoring repeatedly on solo jaunts, and never let the Kazakhs seriously threaten them en route to another three points. Coach Radim Rulik's troops have now scored five or more goals in four of their games so far.
"We wanted to hang in there as long as we could," said Kazakhstan's Dmitriy Breus. "In the first period, we were active, tough to play, but it wasn’t enough. As soon as we showed any weakness, the Czechs seized the initiative and scored. You can’t let your opponent do that."
Matej Stransky and Adam Klapka also had two goals apiece for Czechia, and Jakub Flek added a single. NHL superstar David Pastrnak chipped in two assists in his quest for the tournament scoring lead. He (4+6=10) and Cervenka (5+5=10) are currently tied in points.
Netminder Karel Vejmelka made 21 saves for the victorious Czechs. At the other end, Jelal-ad-din Amirbekov made his tournament debut for Kazakhstan before getting pulled in favour of Maxim Pavlenko early in the third period.
Viacheslav Kolesnikov netted the lone Kazakh goal.
Giving up breakaways to a team as highly skilled as the Czechs is like dancing on the edge of a cliff. The Kazakhs did it twice in the early going. Jakub Flek put his attempt off the cross bar, but Stransky, the beneficial of a spectacular backhanded pass from Ondrej Beranek, scored high to the glove side for a 1-0 lead at 5:19.
The Kazakhs were relatively spirited and the Czechs relatively casual for the rest of the opening stanza, enabling the Central Asian republic to head to the dressing room down just one goal. Shots were 8-8 through 20 minutes.
Flek got another breakaway less than two minutes into the second period, and this time the HC Kometa Brno veteran put it to good use, scoring low to the blocker.
Cervenka's linemate Lukas Sedlak noted about the numerous breakaways: "I think it was just their breakdowns and that they didn't cover the neutral zone properly. We didn't even really speak about it before the game, but it just happened during the game."
At 12:19, Stransky put Czechia up 3-0 with a one-timer blast from the left faceoff circle.
Pastrnak had a huge opportunity to get that fourth Czech goal when he was awarded a penalty shot at 14:03. However, for the second time at this tournament, the Boston Bruins ace was foiled by the goalie in that situation. Pastrnak also couldn't convert his penalty shot in the opener against Switzerland.
Cervenka's 4-0 goal was a thing of beauty. The 39-year-old legend darted in over the blue line, accepting a cross-ice pass and zapping a backhander high to the short side on Amirbekov at 17:04.
"From the second period, I think we were a good team," Sedlak said. "We simplified plays a little bit, so it was a little bit quicker. From that, we scored all the goals it was. We stopped overpassing on plays and stuff like that."
The Kazakhs deserved credit for surviving a late-period Czech power play in which they were completely hemmed in their own end. But in the third period, the champs kept on trucking.
Klapka made it 5-0 on a spectacular end-to-end solo rush at 1:06.
Kazakh fans finally got something to cheer about when Kolesnikov broke Vejmelka's goose egg with Jakub Krjecik serving a double minor for high-sticking. Kolesnikov took a magnficent stretch pass from Dmitriy Breus and broke in to beat the goalie at 7:36.
Cervenka's second of the game came on an unstoppable one-timer at 13:13 set up by Filip Pyrochta. He completed his hat trick at 15:44 to a rapturous ovation from the Czech fans. Klapka batted in the eighth Czech goal with 38 seconds left.
The Czechs have only conceded one point, that being in their 5-4 overtime win over the Swiss on Day One. Optimism justifiably reigns at this moment.
Sedlak commented on Czechia's next game against Germany on Monday: "I think it's going to be a much, much harder game for us. They always play a physical game. They skate well and they have some skilled players. So it's going to be a good test for us. It's going to be a good game. We've had a couple of games that were not that hard, I would say, so now I'm looking forward to that."
Breus was succinct about the mindset for Kazakhstan, which faces the U.S. on Sunday: "We have two games left. We have to show our all and basically play like our lives depend on it."
This was the fifth all-time Czech win over Kazakhstan at the Ice Hockey World Championship. Previous final scores were 7-0 (2004), 1-0 (2005), 3-1 (2016), and 5-1 (2023). Dominik Kubalik shone with two goals, including the winner, in that latter encounter in Riga.
"That's a fun game," Cervenka told IIHF.com. "I don't want to talk about myself too much. I know the 100 games, it's a good accomplishment, but still, we have a different goal here, and that's team success. That was a good game. I didn't score a hat trick in a long time, so I enjoyed it."
The two-time World Champion, who was named the IIHF’s Male Player of the Year in 2024, debuted in 2009. He now takes over the all-time points lead at this tournament in the 21st century (87 points) from Ilya Kovalchuk (86 points). Cervenka has also tied Jaromir Jagr for the most Czech WM goals all-time (32), not counting the Czechoslovakia era.
The Czechs were solid and opportunistic, scoring repeatedly on solo jaunts, and never let the Kazakhs seriously threaten them en route to another three points. Coach Radim Rulik's troops have now scored five or more goals in four of their games so far.
"We wanted to hang in there as long as we could," said Kazakhstan's Dmitriy Breus. "In the first period, we were active, tough to play, but it wasn’t enough. As soon as we showed any weakness, the Czechs seized the initiative and scored. You can’t let your opponent do that."
Matej Stransky and Adam Klapka also had two goals apiece for Czechia, and Jakub Flek added a single. NHL superstar David Pastrnak chipped in two assists in his quest for the tournament scoring lead. He (4+6=10) and Cervenka (5+5=10) are currently tied in points.
Netminder Karel Vejmelka made 21 saves for the victorious Czechs. At the other end, Jelal-ad-din Amirbekov made his tournament debut for Kazakhstan before getting pulled in favour of Maxim Pavlenko early in the third period.
Viacheslav Kolesnikov netted the lone Kazakh goal.
Giving up breakaways to a team as highly skilled as the Czechs is like dancing on the edge of a cliff. The Kazakhs did it twice in the early going. Jakub Flek put his attempt off the cross bar, but Stransky, the beneficial of a spectacular backhanded pass from Ondrej Beranek, scored high to the glove side for a 1-0 lead at 5:19.
The Kazakhs were relatively spirited and the Czechs relatively casual for the rest of the opening stanza, enabling the Central Asian republic to head to the dressing room down just one goal. Shots were 8-8 through 20 minutes.
Flek got another breakaway less than two minutes into the second period, and this time the HC Kometa Brno veteran put it to good use, scoring low to the blocker.
Cervenka's linemate Lukas Sedlak noted about the numerous breakaways: "I think it was just their breakdowns and that they didn't cover the neutral zone properly. We didn't even really speak about it before the game, but it just happened during the game."
At 12:19, Stransky put Czechia up 3-0 with a one-timer blast from the left faceoff circle.
Pastrnak had a huge opportunity to get that fourth Czech goal when he was awarded a penalty shot at 14:03. However, for the second time at this tournament, the Boston Bruins ace was foiled by the goalie in that situation. Pastrnak also couldn't convert his penalty shot in the opener against Switzerland.
Cervenka's 4-0 goal was a thing of beauty. The 39-year-old legend darted in over the blue line, accepting a cross-ice pass and zapping a backhander high to the short side on Amirbekov at 17:04.
"From the second period, I think we were a good team," Sedlak said. "We simplified plays a little bit, so it was a little bit quicker. From that, we scored all the goals it was. We stopped overpassing on plays and stuff like that."
The Kazakhs deserved credit for surviving a late-period Czech power play in which they were completely hemmed in their own end. But in the third period, the champs kept on trucking.
Klapka made it 5-0 on a spectacular end-to-end solo rush at 1:06.
Kazakh fans finally got something to cheer about when Kolesnikov broke Vejmelka's goose egg with Jakub Krjecik serving a double minor for high-sticking. Kolesnikov took a magnficent stretch pass from Dmitriy Breus and broke in to beat the goalie at 7:36.
Cervenka's second of the game came on an unstoppable one-timer at 13:13 set up by Filip Pyrochta. He completed his hat trick at 15:44 to a rapturous ovation from the Czech fans. Klapka batted in the eighth Czech goal with 38 seconds left.
The Czechs have only conceded one point, that being in their 5-4 overtime win over the Swiss on Day One. Optimism justifiably reigns at this moment.
Sedlak commented on Czechia's next game against Germany on Monday: "I think it's going to be a much, much harder game for us. They always play a physical game. They skate well and they have some skilled players. So it's going to be a good test for us. It's going to be a good game. We've had a couple of games that were not that hard, I would say, so now I'm looking forward to that."
Breus was succinct about the mindset for Kazakhstan, which faces the U.S. on Sunday: "We have two games left. We have to show our all and basically play like our lives depend on it."
This was the fifth all-time Czech win over Kazakhstan at the Ice Hockey World Championship. Previous final scores were 7-0 (2004), 1-0 (2005), 3-1 (2016), and 5-1 (2023). Dominik Kubalik shone with two goals, including the winner, in that latter encounter in Riga.
Czechia vs Kazakhstan - 2025 IIHF WM
OF