Defeat the Russians in regulation and advance to the quarter-finals, or win in extra time or lose any which way and be forced to suffer the ignominy of playing a best-of-three in the Relegation Round.

For Russia, it was a meaningless game in the standings in that they had qualified for the playoffs, but they lost a chance to play perhaps a weaker seeded team in the quarter-finals.

"We know how they play," Patrik Zdrahal said. "If you play them well in the neutral zone, they can't enter our zone easily and they start to take the puck individually. We wanted them to do that. We were under control the whole game."

Thanks to two goals from Zdrahal and three assists from David Pastrnak, the underdog Czechs beat an uninspired Russian team, 4-1, and made it through, eliminating the Swiss in the process. Russia managed only 17 shots at Miroslav Svoboda in the Czech goal.

"It was awesome the way we played," an elated Zdrahal said after. "David Pastrnak made two great passes to me. I'm lucky that I can play with him. We have good chemistry together."

A quiet and uninspired first period produced only one goal, that coming at 11:05 by the more desperate Czechs. Pastrnak made a great play behind the Russian net to get the puck, and he rolled a perfect pass in the slot to Zdrahal. Zdrahal wasted no time in ripping a shot to the far corner for a 1-0 Czech lead.

"Scoring the first goal was very important for us," Pastrnak said. "It gave us confidence for the rest of the game."