Czech ice hockey team loses to Sweden in second game at Salt Lake City

The Czechs against the Swedes, photo CTK

Following a resounding 8:2 victory over Germany in their opening game at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics on Friday, the Czech Republic's ice hockey team were beaten 2:1 by Sweden on Sunday. The only Czech goal came from Jiri Dopita - otherwise the Czechs' finishing was poor.

Captain Jaromir Jagr spoke to Czech Radio after the game.

"Some of our shots weren't of such high quality, and were from too far out so the goal-tender could see them coming. And the Swedish goal-tender is excellent. Sometimes you need a bit of luck to get the goals and we didn't have so much luck. I think it's totally irrelevant who you play in the quarter-finals - all the teams are high quality and we can play too. We want to show we can play hockey too and that we're capable of beating stars like the Canadians."

The Czechs don't have much time to recover from the defeat against the Swedes - they take on Canada on Monday night. A draw would be enough for the Czech Republic to go through to the semi-finals.