The United States set the pace from the very first second in tonight's game against Czechia in Esbjerg and it all ended up in another bog win for the reigning champs. Aneta Senkova, making her first start of the tournament, had plenty to deal with right from the opening face-off.
It took just 53 seconds for the American free birds to hear their goal anthem again. Abby Murphy was on target to give the favourites an early lead.
The United States handled a couple of Czech penalties sensibly, but Czechia's penalty kill also had plenty of work to do and did a good job of keeping the Americans at bay.
Veteran Hilary Knight scraped home the 2-0 goal after 16 minutes in a period where the favourites dominated the shots 18-1 and were ruthless in their attacking play whenever an opportunity presented itself.
The pattern continued in the second period. Knight made it 3-0 as the Americans continued to move both themselves and the puck around at tremendous speed in their five-on-five play, almost making it look like a power play. Lacey Eden hit the crossbar, while the fourth goal was a piece of pure artistry.
Somehow, the Americans had to find a way to unlock the compact Czech defence, and Taylor Fox did just that.
She almost danced her way around the entire offensive zone before sending a cross-ice pass to Abby Murphy, who hammered home a first-time shot.
At 29:19, a hard-working Aneta Senkova was replaced in the Czech goal by Daniela Novakova.
Shortly afterwards, Czechia enjoyed its first extended spell in the American zone in the second period, and Kristyna Kaltounkova came very close to beating Aerin Frankel in the US goal.
The Americans made it 5-0 through a deflection off Grace Zumwinkle's skate, and shortly afterwards Czechia found itself down two players. Following sustained pressure against a compact Czech penalty-killing unit, and several heroic blocked shots, Laila Edwards finally managed to lift the puck into the top corner to make it 6-0.
Hard-working Kristyna Kaltounkova was clearly Czechia's most dangerous player on the night, and she never gave up in her pursuit of what seemed an almost impossible task: beating Frankel.
Four minutes into the third period, Kaltounkova threw herself towards the net and came agonisingly close to scoring.
The sequence earned her a penalty, and the Americans made the most of the ensuing power play. Hilary Knight completed her hat-trick with a goal at four-on-five, making it 7-0 for the United States.
"I think we played really well in the group phase, and we'll just have to keep concentrated and motivated going into the next phase of the tournament," Knight said.
"It will be fun to be up against Denmark in the quarters. Hopefully we'll meet a packed arena in Herning. It's a lovely city and we have some good memories from back in 2022 (where Herning was one of the host cities), said Knight.
Alex Carpenter made it 8-0, but the Czech refused to give up and Natalie Mlynkova got a well-deserved consolation and finally broke down the "Frankel Wall" setting the 8-1 final result with a well-placed wrist shot.
The Czechs will now face Canada in the quarters:
"We have to carry the mentality from this game over to the Canada game, and if we do that, I'm sure we'll give them a hard time," said Kristyna Kaltounkova
