Kolzig shines in 4-1 loss.

Team Czech defeated Germany 4-1 on Wednesday afternoon, but the game was much closer than that. Thanks to some fantastic goalkeeping by Olie the Goalie, Germany was able to keep it close until the final minutes.

On his 34th birthday, Jaro Jagr picked up a goal in the eighteenth minute of the third period on a bad bounce. He came in across the blue line and ripped a wrister on goal. Kolzig stopped it, but somehow it trickled through his pads and in the net. Out of 100 times, he'd stop that shot 99 times. This was just a bad break. Two minutes later, with an empty net, the Czechs got another goal. This one from David Vyborny, who has represented Czech in many international tournaments, but never before in the Olympics.

So despite the 4-1 score, the game was much closer than that. Make no mistake: the Germans have a good team. Certainly if Kolzig is on his game, they can compete with anyone. And he was very much on his game.

Kudos should be given to Tomas Vokoun, who stepped in to replace the injured Hasek. He did an outstanding job as well, stopping 20 of 21 shots.

I noticed, by the way, that Tomas Kaberle's English is much better than his brother's. It's really painful to watch an interview with Frantisek, but Tomas speaks English very clearly. I also noticed that the announcers refuse to say his name correctly. I'm not going to go all Gölbez on this, but it isn't difficult. It should be pronounced like "toe-MOSS" rather than the anglo "TAH-miss". It's not hard.

At 2:00, the Russians take on the "substandard" Slovakians. At 3:00, USA takes on Arturs Irbe and Latvia. Unfortunately, I'll have to miss all but the first period.