Although the juniors from Pardubice managed to beat Hradec Králové in extra time 4:3 in the first match, they did not do so well in the second. Dynamo scored only one goal once morest the rival and mightn’t find an answer to his three. Vít Macek, the scorer of Pardubice’s only goal, looked back at the second match of the series.
The opening 20 minutes was not ideal for either side, and the home team took the lead at the very end. “We came into the game, leading 1-0, but we didn’t really have many shots in that first period,” says the 17-year-old forward, “following that it went downhill for us.”
Pardubice’s only goal-scoring action began in the middle zone, where players fought for the puck near the goalpost. “Křéča (Filip Křečan) turned it quickly there, which was great and sent it to Drábis (Dominik Drábek), who just moved it to me, then I just aimed under the catcher,” Macek describes his goal.
In the second period, Hradečtí turned the game around with two accurate shots in power plays. “We weren’t in a good mood at all, we didn’t have the juice for the match, and I think that killed us,” explains the talented player, who has also made several starts in the national team. At the end of the match, the home side, at the risk of playing without a goalkeeper, conceded into an empty net and the fate of the match was decided.
The third match of the series awaits the youth on Friday, March 22, and the fourth is scheduled for Saturday. “We need to prepare properly for the next match, following all, we need some strength when we advance to the next matches,” Macek exhorts for the future, “playing as few matches as possible in this series will be the best for us. So we have to change something, we’ll look at the mistakes we made today and then we also have to go into those matches with a better set-up.”
