Olympic ice hockey: Czech Republic 2-5 USA – as it happened!

Latvia ice the puck - so now they face a face off deep in their zone and lose the extra skater again.

Latvia are offsides so now there’s a face off outside Canada’s zone.

The Latvian net is empty - Canada calls a timeout.

Easton:

Finally! Sweet baby Jesus in Huggies. Thank you, Weber.

From Vaughnsama:

Jagr to get a hat-trick...and by the way what on earth do you think Czech hockey fans are if they have a bowl of soup when watching games...

Oh boy...I forgot about that!

Doughty draws a slashing penalty and now Canada go on the power play. This will be Canada’s fourth power play of the game, and it’s a big one for both teams.

Click on this for a look at the no-goal call.

Canada is celebrating a goal but the refs aren’t buying it.

There’s a battle in front of the net, Latvian goalie Kristers Gudlevskis is down with his arms extended. Is it in? It looks like Kristaps Sotnieks reached out and pulled it back from over the goal line! That’s a penalty shot! But it’s not reviewable! I think...

It’s a bit chaotic but in the end it’s no goal! We’re still tied!

Easton returns with this:

Based on the unscientific survey of conversations with colleagues, emails from friends and Facebook/twitter feed I am getting: Canada is a very anxious, unhappy country.

Oh yeah, I can buy that. They are closing on on half-way through the third period and Canada (over 2600 rinks) remain tied with Latvia (17 rinks).

Andrew Kupfer tells us what’s holding Czech’s interest right now...

...and Czech fans are watching the Ladies Figure Skating short program.

De Clair is back:

Latvia have to be tired. Played last night, they’re all in either the KHL or even the AHL, and they’ve played almost the entire game in their own end. Take it from me that hurts. Still they’re all loosey goosey. Nothing to loose. Canada tighter than a very tight drum

Shawn De Clair says:

Just clutching the sticks a little too hard at the moment...35 shots and counting... Latvia have nothing to lose. Incredible to watch.

Easy come easy go. Voracek trips T.J. Oshie and so the teams are at even strength again, just like that. Way to go boys.

Kessel with a shot on net from the circle, off the pads of Salak.

Backes is everywhere - enormous blast by Callahan, Backes finds the rebound, challenges Salak but he makes a save. So far so good for Salak.

Penalty - interference by Orpik, and the Czech Republic will have a man advantage and a shot at getting somewhat back in this game.

Brown roughs up Frolík behind the USA net.

Jagr flings one to Cervenka who is in front of the net, he gets little on the puck and Quick has it.

The shots are close, 14-12 USA, but the game is not.

...they are STILL tied at the Bolshoi Ice Dome!

They were fixing some glass along the boards, but now we’re back.

Oshie plows Martins Cipulis.

Then the Czechs come back Zidlicky winds up - big slap shot from center and Quick gets enough pad on it to force it wide.

Now a penalty - Team USA will go on the power play - Zbyněk Michálek hits Kesler into the boards.

That can only be bad news for Canada, right?

Time is flying by this period and so is Backes who gets a pass from Kane and winds up - shooting high and wide - that was his second chance in just a few moments.

Sergio follows up on an earlier email:

No - changing your name to Ryan Ryan will not get it done. Bobby Ryan was left off the team, leading to some controversy.

Robert Hisnay:

So who were the 5 Canadians on the ice who were asleep? At least one of them wasn’t PK Subban. He’s not even dressed thanks to the brain-dead Mike Babcock.

Kevin Ryan says:

Is it compulsory to be called Ryan to get into the USA team? Maybe if I changed my first name to Ryan I might get a game.- I’d be Ryan Ryan then- must be a shoe-in....

G Easton chimes in:

I think we Canadians are of mixed emotions re Finland beating Russia. In 2010 we figured we knew how to solve the Russians - hit the hard and get goals early then wait for the team to disintegrate into petulant millionaire individuals. In 2014 the formula seemed destined to work again. And Finland proved it.

Now we might have to play the tough and resilient Finns. The Finns love playing the Swedes like we love playing the USA. Anything could happen there. That’s scary.

Can the Czechs stun the USA? That would ruin NBC’s day, for sure. Almost seems worth hoping for on that basis. And Canada has unfinished business with the Czechs. Two words: Nagano 1998.

P.S. It’s Vancouver Island, not Victoria Island. Victoria is a city on the aforementioned Island.

My hands are up and I’m coming out of the building!

Here is how Latvia got their goal.

Callahan sweeping across, fires away, and a tremendous glove save from Ondrej Pavelec, who took an awful lot of stick coming in to this game but looked good there keeping his team within a goal.

Some disagreement on draw toughness here:

Fowler hits the post! Then Pavelec makes a great stick save on JVR who was skating with purpose down the middle and had room! Defenders just watched him fly by, didn’t seem to interested in getting involved.

Lot’s of action!

Quick note - Marek Zidlicky gets the assist on the Czech goal, even though it should have come from the USA’s two Ryans, McDonagh and Suter.

Here’s Nedved from behind the net, Frolik is there – his shot is wide! Then Nedved shoots from the left circle – it hits the post! How about these Czechs?! They look like getting steamrolled moments ago, now they are dominating the play.

More: Hemsky with a big shot and a stick side save from Quick. They’re relentless!

Meanwhile, no score between Latvia and Canada, which should have some North Americans a bit confused.

James Mirtle of the Toronto Globe and Mail does a great job telling the tale of the “The bizarre dysfunction of the Czech hockey team”, which details how this current team was put together, which, according to him, is less than sensibly.

Meanwhile, one of their best players is at home injured. Tomáš Hertl of the San Jose Sharks, whose ability to score goals would be a welcome asset on this team, is not buying the narrative.

Sweden cruised to a 5-0 victory over Slovenia behind a second Olympics shutout from Henrik Lundqvist, while Russia disappointed one more time. Their 3-1 defeat to Finland means they not only don’t take gold on home ice, but that they have won zero medals in their prior three Games. Alex Ovechkin in particular was guilty of letting the home team down, disappearing when his team needed him most.

So Sweden will face Finland in an all Scandinavian semifinal match-up.

The opening round format of the Olympics ice hockey tournament has something of a kindergarten field day feel to it – no losers, everybody gets a ribbon. For the first three games it didn’t matter how many goals you lost by, there was no chance of being sent home.

That all changed on Tuesday with Slovakia, Austria, Norway and Switzerland being ousted in the qualifications round, while Latvia, Slovenia, Russia and the Czech Republic moved on.

Now the stakes rise another notch.

It’s quarter-finals day in Sochi – Finland and Sweden have already found their way to the final four, and now the United States face the Czech Republic while Canada enjoy a light afternoon skate against Latvia.

The biggest blow to Team USA’s men’s ice hockey team in Sochi hasn’t come on the ice, but rather, in the draw. The United States have arguably the toughest road to a gold medal, one that starts today against Czech Republic, who dispatched their old roommates Slovakia 5-3 to earn the meeting. Despite their challenging path, one that could lead to Canada next round, the US are quite fancied these days, especially after an undefeated opening round where the line of Phil Kessel, JVR and Joe Pavelski lit up the Caucasus, part of a group of USA forwards that have already scored 11 goals.

If you wanted to play devils advocate, you could say they beat a Slovakian team that was wildly disappointing, a Slovenian club that are in their first Olympic Games and that they probably lose to Russia if goalie Jonathan Quick doesn’t inadvertently kick the net off the moorings, ever so slightly. That would be a misguided argument – this is the best Team USA hockey team for some time, and they really should win today.

Still, the Czech Republic are always capable of pulling off the unexpected. Many eyes will be on the old raisin, Jaromir Jagr, who continues to provide his team with a level of play not commensurate with his age. The downside is you don’t know how much the 42-year-old has left heading into back-to-back games, especially when rumor has it he’s getting his legs worked on by trainers after every shift. The inconsistent Czech goalie Ondrej Pavelec is seen as a hole, not good for a netminder, mind you, and that’s also not in their favor, especially against this super deep US offense.

Now, we all know by now that past performance doesn’t guarantee future results (see Sweden vs USA women’s semifinal), but while we’re here, it’s worth bringing up the events of Nagano, if not just for fun. That was when these teams met in the same round in 1998, Jagr had a goal and an assist while Dominik Hasek stopped 38 shots in dispatching Team USA 4-1 en route to a gold medal.

That Czech team didn’t have a primary defensive pairing with a combined age of 72, and Jagr was a full 14 years younger. Did I mention that this Czech squad also includes Petr Nedvěd? That means this group has two players from the Sega classic video game NHL 95 - surely that’s worrisome.

Expect Dan Bylsma’s men to set the tone early on and throw the kitchen sink at a rebound prone Pavelec, whose stats during second games of back-to-backs are gag worthy.

Meanwhile, Mike Babcock and Canada, sit back, relax and face Latvia, who are flying high after pulling off an upset of Switzerland. If they do the same against Canada, I will send each and every one of you a crisp five dollar bill. Sound good? We’ll have updates of that game as we provide you with all the action of our main game, USA vs Czech Republic.

The puck drops at noon on the east coast of the United States, and at 5PM in the UK. So go get your hotdogs and apple pie and a bowl of polévka, then come back and tweet in to @lengeldavid, or write david.lengel.freelance@theguardian.com