The Czechs came out with purpose this afternoon but found a French team up to the challenge and more. The result was a surprising and thrilling 6-3 Czech win over an impressive squad coached by Yorick Treille.

It was a game between two countries that had lost their first games by shutouts. For the Czechs, they scored early, but the French, despite the three goals, continued to have problems generating offence and creating scoring chances. Shots were 38-12 for the winners.

With the victory, the Czechs move to 1-1 in Group A and for the moment are tied with Canada and Switzerland, who play the late game tonight.

The Czechs and France have played at the Olympics only twice before—in 1936 and, most recently, 1992, both Czech victories.

"We had some chances. We played really well the first period," said Radek Faksa. "I think the game was really tight in the first period and then we stopped playing again. So we have to learn from that. The tournament is really short, and we have to be good for a whole 60 minutes."

"We didn't have that many chances, but we put them in the net, so it gave us good momentum," said Frenchman Charles Bertrand. "And it gave us a chance to believe again, but it wasn't enough."

"It was a hard start for us today," added Yohann Auvitu. "We came back pretty good in the second period, but we got punished on a couple of mistakes. But we keep learning, you know. It's a long process."

The Czechs got off to a quick start, peppering the 20-year-old Dijonnais Martin Neckar with shots from every which area on ice. Pucks and more pucks was the theme. They got on the board early, on a power play, when David Pastrnak teed up a cross-ice pass for Martin Neckas, who wired a one-timer to the short side before Neckar could get over to cover the post.

Seven minutes later, they made it 2-0. Defender Michal Kempny took a pass at the point along the boards and glided to the middle before unleashing a long blast that beat a screened Neckar to the blocker side at 13:01.

Despite the dominant opening period, the Czechs were ill-prepared for the start the French produced in the second. They scored their first goal of the tournament at 1:01 on a power play when Louis Bourdon converted a rebound from in close and goalie Daniel Vladar was without his stick.

Just three minutes later, France tied the game, much to the delight of their large contingent of fans, who had remained docile during the one-sided first period. The French exploded out of their end on a two-on-one. Bertrand made a perfect pass to Bourdon, who beat Vladar to the stick side at 4:04.

France wasn’t yet done yet. Less than two minutes later, they took the lead when Hugo Gallet got to a puck in the slot and banged it in. In the meantime, Neckar stoned David Pastrnak on what looked like a sure goal.

Neckar would see “Pasta” again later in the period. The Czech superstar tried a wraparound, and although the goalie got his skate over to the post, the puck came back to Pastrnak, who swatted the rebound in at 13:23 to tie the game.

Then, in the final minute, France turned opportunity into disappointment on a power play. The Czechs played the puck back deep into their own end, and the French made a poor line change. Filip Hronek noticed as much and fired a long pass up to Matej Stransky, who had a two-on-the-goalie with Radek Faksa. A give-and-go and give again gave Stransky the empty side, and he made no mistake, giving the Czechs a 4-3 lead with just 31.5 seconds left in the period.

"It was a great play by Filip Hronak," Faksa noted. "Me and Stransky, we jumped from the bench when we saw all five French guys changing. We had a 2-on-0. I was going to shoot, but then I decided to fake a shot and give Stransky back the pass. I was hoping that the goalie would bite on it, so that Stransky would have empty net, and he did. It was a huge goal at the end of the period."

Neckar made his first significant error of the game early in the third which led to the Czechs' fifth goal. He made a routine save with his blocker but lost sight of the puck. It landed in the blue ice and Filip Chlapik banged it in at 1:05 to make it 5-3.

Just 48 seconds later, 40-year-old Roman Cervenka took a breakaway pass and went in alone, beating the goalie with a backhand over the glove to give the Czechs some breathing room. Treille decided to pull Neckar at this point in favour of Julian Junca.