Europe Defeats Czech Republic 3-2 In Overtime

– What some pegged as a misguided, bound-for-failure experiment looks anything but so far.

TORONTO

Team Europe took a major step toward punching its ticket to the semifinal round of the 2016 World Cup of Hockey on Monday when it defeated the Czech Republic 3-2, in overtime, to improve to 2-0 in round-robin games.

The success may come as a surprise to many, but not to Team Europe itself.

"Well, for us, it isn't," Thomas Vanek said before the game. "Are we as fast as the North American Team? No, we're not, we know that. But we have a lot of veterans on this team that know how to play the game who have played in big situations. Again, from that standpoint, we weren't as surprised as other people…