Czechs crush Swedes, move to World Cup of Hockey semi-finals

The Czech Republic crushed Sweden 6-1 on Tuesday night to secure a spot in the 2004 Ice Hockey World Cup semi-finals in North America, where they will probably face off against Canada. The Czech team, whose mentor and coach Ivan Hlinka died in a car accident last month, had lost 4-3 to the Scandinavian team during their first meeting on Wednesday last week and had not been favoured to win Tuesday's match. However, the Czechs started out strong and never relinquished their lead over the Swedes, who couldn't seem to organise their play to prevent sloppy defence and shaky goalkeeping, as well as to create more chances in offence.