Adam Klapka Scores First 2 IIHF Goals: ‘It’s Something You Dream About’

Adam
Klapka played his first IIHF World Championship game on Thursday
against Hungary but his second game on Saturday was more memorable.
The 24-year-old Calgary
Flames winger recorded two goals and an assist in an 8-1 victory
over Kazakhstan.

He assisted on Jakub Flek’s goal early in the second period to
make it 2-0 but waited until the third period to score his goals.
Before that, he missed a couple of point-blank chances.

“Honestly, I was a little angry with myself,” he told the media after the game, according to Hokej.cz. “When
you’re alone in the slot, you should score because it doesn’t
happen very often. I should convert these chances. But I’m glad I
finally found a way to score.”

Did he ever. A minute into the third period, he picked up the
corner deep in his own zone and went end-to-end, beating five Kazakhs
and splitting the defense along the way to give the Czechs a 5-0
lead.

“The defenseman hit my stick and the puck went up in the air,”
he said about the finish. “I wanted to bury it under (the goalie)
and I found a hole between the legs, so I put it there.”

His second goal closed out the
scoring in the final minute.

“Flíček (Flek) wanted
to pass it to me and it hit a Kazakh
stick, so again
from the air, I just wanted to try to put
it past
the goalie, and fortunately I did,”
Klapka described.

“I really enjoyed it. It’s
something you dream about when you watch the World
Championship at home.”

Klapka wasn’t the only Czech to record three points in the game.
Captain Roman Červenka, a former Flame, recorded
a hat trick.

“I’m happy for him,” said Klapka. Roman is a professional
and you can learn a lot from him. He’s the first to enter the
locker room and the last to leave. I like watching how he takes care
of himself – it’s inspiring. It’s incredible to enjoy time with
him like this and be right there.”

Adam Klapka: “I knew deep down that I would play in the NHL one day”At 6-foot-8 and 236 pounds, Adam Klapka is a hard guy to miss. But the Czech winger managed to fly under the radar for much of his amateur career and even in his early years as a pro. He never played in the U18 Worlds or the World Juniors, was never drafted by an NHL team and at age 21, split the season between the Bílí Tygři Liberec of the Czech Extraliga and HC Benátky nad Jizerou of the tier-two Chance Liga.

With injured Jakub Lauko due back into the lineup at some point
and speculation about the addition of David Kämpf
to the Czech team if the Toronto
Maple Leafs get eliminated on Sunday, Klapka doesn’t
know if he’ll get the chance to play any more games in this
tournament, but he’ll be ready if he does.

“It’s
up to the coaches,” he said. “I tried to do my best in the two
games I played. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll do what the coaches
say and be ready for anything.”

Czechs Eyeing Kämpf If Leafs Lose Game 7; Hertl HurtCzechia
still has a free forward spot on its World Championship roster and
the team is apparently eyeing David Kämpf
in the event the Toronto
Maple Leafs lose Game 7 of their
Stanley Cup second-round playoff series to
the Florida Panthers
on Sunday.

Read the full article here