Canadian Avalanche Players Face Off Against Hejda and the Czechs at Worlds

The 2015 World Championships continued in Prague, this time pitting the Avalanche players on Team Canada against their teammate Jan Hejda. Hejda has been averaging over nineteen and a half minutes of ice time per game with team Czech Republic, paired with HC CSKA Moscow’s Ondřej Němec of the KHL.

While Hejda didn’t tally on the scoresheet, he exhibited his characteristic defensive awareness as seen in the photo above. Despite playing alongside legendary superstar Jaromir Jagr as well as NHL-caliber talents like Martin Erat and Vladimir Sobotka, Hejda and the Czechs weren’t able to slow the roll of the offensive juggernaut that is Team Canada.

The Avalanche had another strong showing, beating the Czech Republic 6-3 at the final buzzer. Credit to the hometown Czech Republic team, however, who kept it tight up until the third.

Every Avalanche player on Team Canada notched an assist for the night. Matt Duchene continued his impressive run, assisting on Jordan Eberle’s opening goal.

At the third game in, this brings the Avs’ point totals for the Worlds contest to the following:

Also playing in the tournament are defenseman Zach Redmond (USA) and goaltender Reto Berra (Switzerland). Redmond was scratched the first two games for the Americans and has yet to register any points. Berra has played in one game for the Swiss with a GAA of 3.69 and a save percentage of .840.

Though there’s a lot of tournament to play yet, Matt Duchene is currently in a three-way tie with Taylor Hall and Team Russia’s Yevgeni Dadonov for the tournament’s leading points scorer.