Washington Capitals: Jakub Vrana’s Diving Goal Highlights Czech Republic’s 6-3 Win
Jakub Vrana hasn’t skipped a beat in the IIHF Worlds and after having a killer regular season V has shown the Washington Capitals that he wants his raise.
In Czech Republic’s 6-3 comeback win over Latvia on Thursday, the Washington Capitals left winger added his third goal in the IIFH World Championship. Jakub Vrana’s home country was trailing 2-0 and V’s goal was part of Czech four-goal second period surge to take command of the game.
Miks Indrasis and Lauris Darzins gave Latvia a 2-0 lead after the first intermission. In the second period, the Czech Republic ripped off four unanswered goals. First they tied it on goals from Filip Hronek and Jan Kovar. Jakub Voracek gave the Czech Repubic a 3-2 lead. Then V happened.
Vrana’s goal came with 1:20 remaining in the second and 62 seconds after Voracek gave the Czechs the lead. On the surface, it looks like a nice diving goal. But look closer.
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After Radek Faska unintentionally blocked the shot of his teammate Radko Gudas, the puck was loose around Faska’s skates. Vrana caught the puck with his eyes and at that point there was no stopping V.
Vrana grabbed the puck in between the legs of a defender before he could spot the biscuit. Then he toe-dragged and beat Latvia goalie Elivis Merlikins past his left skate to give the Czechs a 4-2 lead.
Dominik Simon made it 5-2 in the third before Darzins scored his second goal of the game. Voracek put it away to seal the 6-3 win. The Czechs outshot Latvia 39-24. Vrana appeared in 21 shifts for an ice time of 13:47, had three shots, and was a +2. Dmitrij Jaskin appeared in 16 shifts for 10:15 and recorded two shots.
Back to Vrana and the Capitals as both parties are likely to agree to a contract extension this summer, at least that’s the goal. The question is what. Some say bridge deal to afford other players like Brett Connolly but I have a feeling the 23-year old will get a deal similar to Tom Wilson, Evgeny Kuznetsov and T.J. Oshie.
How he got to this point was truly remarkable considering he did spend most of his first full season in the NHL going up-and-down and in-and-out of the lineup at times. He went from having the second-least ice time in Game 1 against the Blue Jackets to scoring a clutch goal against the Penguins in Game 5 and having a big goal in another Game 5 just over a month later.
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V hasn’t looked back since and it looks like that has carried over overseas.