From time to time, TheIHLC.com will feature detailed recaps and boxscores of some of the most legendary games in international hockey history, considered to be “IHLC Classics.” Today, in honour of Czech Independence Day, we look back at Czechia’s third World Championship from the year 2000, won in a tense battle over neighbouring Slovakia in their first major elimination game since the split of Czechoslovakia.

🇨🇿 Czechia 5-3 Slovakia 🇸🇰
World Championship Gold Medal Game
Ice Palace, Saint Petersburg 🇷🇺
Sunday, 14 May 2000

Proving that breakups of countries don’t have to result in bloodshed, Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on 1 January 1993, an event sometimes called the Velvet Divorce.
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