‘I love my country’: Czech Raiders return with silver medals

Two Prince Albert Raiders returned to Saskatchewan on Tuesday with some hardware from the world junior hockey championship. John Flatters reports.

Prince Albert Raiders Matyas Man and Michal Orsulak are back in Saskatchewan after their performance at the World Junior Hockey Championship in Minnesota.

They’ve brought back some silverware and a lot of confidence to inject into the second half of the WHL season.

“After the final, it was sad,” said Man, who finished the tournament with two assists and a plus-one rating. “But yeah, I’m happy to finish second. I have a silver medal. I’m so happy for that.”

Team Czechia started the tournament with a boxing day thriller against Team Canada, a back and forth matchup that ended 7-5 in favour of the Canadians.

Going up against players with NHL regular season experience was daunting for Orsulak.

“The first game, I’m a little bit scared because so many guys from the NHL, and it ended 7-5, so it’s not good for me,” said Orsulak, who finished with three wins, a 3.20 goals against average and an .860 save percentage.

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But a few days later, the Czechs would get another chance at Canada, this time in the semi final for a trip to the gold medal game.

“The second game is better because I trust myself, because I know I’m a good goalie, and we win the game,” he said.

Man says the rematch against Canada, where the Czechs bounced the perennial favourites for the third year in a row with a 6-4 win, was a game to remember.

“It was probably the best game that I ever played,” he said. “It was fast. I played a lot of guys that were good. A lot of them play in the NHL, they have some matches there. It was probably the best game to ever play.”

While taking down Team Canada will stick with them for a lifetime, so will the feeling of winning a silver medal for their home country.

“I love my country,” said Orsulak. “And for me, I think it was amazing success.”

Shifting their focus back to the Raiders, Orsulak and Man are looking at a long playoff run.

“I hope we can do the WHL title,” said Orsulak. “We have a great team now, we have some trades, so I think we have a really good team and we can win the WHL.”

With a little more confidence, Man hopes to ride the wave from the World Juniors through the second half, but not before some much needed rest.

“I’m just going to probably get some sleep,” he said. “And then tomorrow I’m going to go into training and get back in my routine. Training, training, and more training.”

The Raiders sit at No. 3 in the WHL standings, one point behind Medicine Hat with two games in hand.

Prince Albert will stay at the Art Hauser Centre this weekend. The Swift Current Broncos come to town Friday night followed by the Edmonton Oil Kings on Saturday.