While Canadian hockey fans suffered through a near-existential crisis on Thursday during Canada’s 4-3 loss to Czechia in the IIHF World Junior Championship quarterfinals, one of the outlets for their anger and frustration – in addition to referees, coaches and Hockey Canada itself – was Czech center Petr Sikora.

The Washington Capitals prospect, who was celebrating his 19th birthday, opened the scoring just 43 seconds in, assisted on the game-winning power-play goal with 40 seconds remaining, and in the middle was accused of embellishing a hit by Cole Beaudoin – one which saw the Canadian expelled from the game for kneeing.

In particular, Canadian fans pointed out that Sikora appeared to look around, perhaps to see if a penalty was being indicated by a referee, before he reacted to the pain. Sikora rebuffed the notion that he was faking the pain when speaking to Czech media after the game.

“Oh my God, it’s a charley horse – I got hit in the thigh,” said Sikora. “We iced it, I walked off the pain, it’s fine. My leg will probably still hurt (tomorrow), but it should be fine.”

After briefly walking down the tunnel, Sikora quickly returned to the Czech bench and saw ice time on the five-minute power play.

“When the game’s on, even if you get hit in the head, you keep on going, it’s mind over matter,” said Sikora. “I haven't seen the play yet, I have to look at it, but he kneed me, so... I’ll look at it. My leg hurts, but it won’t stop me.”

“The doctors and trainers took care of him,” Czech coach Patrik Augusta said about Sikora’s quick return. “Adrenaline was a big factor. ‘Siky’ wanted to play and he played fantastic.”

Regarding the booing from Canadian fans, Augusta added, “From his perspective, I think it only helped him, rather than getting him down.”

“We definitely tried to encourage him, but he’s the type of guy who puts this sort of thing out of his head,” said linemate Jakub Štancl. “It probably lit a fire under him, so the Canadian (fans) didn’t think it through.”

“He told us he wasn’t entirely happy about it,” said Czech captain Eduard Šalé. “We’re playing in Canada against Canada and this was to be expected. He lay there for a long time, so it’s good for us that nothing serious came of it in the end. But the fans gave him a hard time.”

Sikora was aware that the Canadian fan reaction went beyond the fans inside Canadian Tire Centre. And while the host Canadian team is done, its fans are not, and he might hear more from them this weekend in Ottawa. 

“I was already looking at my phone, there was something on it, so I quickly put it back,” said Sikora. “I’ll look at other things. I’m not afraid of it, I don’t think about things like that much.”

Sikora is having a fine tournament, with four goals and three assists in five games, which ties him for third on the team. The Czechs take on the USA in the semifinals on Saturday, and will then play for a medal on Sunday against either Sweden or Finland.