Slágr in Těšín, Sparta is not doing well
Třinec is currently closest to first place following the regular season. During the week, he managed to win both games in which he was led by the home team, although one was not quite at home. The Steelers welcomed Sparta in another final replay on the ice of Český Těšín. In front of a great backdrop of 652 spectators, they won clearly 6:2.
“To beat Sparta twice in a row in such a short period of time, who have really great power, I think it speaks to the fact that maybe we are better prepared this year.” pleased coach René Mucha in the evaluation for hcocelari.cz. His wards then beat Jihlava by the same difference, only a wilder result of 8:4, but immediately fell following separate raids once morest Kometa.
It was the people of Brno who succeeded in the trip in Vítkovice and are second in the table of the higher group by three points. Sparta, on the other hand, is stumbling. The latter did not even defend home points when they lost to Mladá Boleslav and Liberec. “We don’t have the lauf now that we had before. We conceded two stupid goals at the end of the second period and were mainly let down by individual mistakes. We have to improve,” coach Tomáš Netík ordered following the fourth loss in a row. “The boys gave a great performance and thanks to that we celebrate the three points,” his counterpart Valdemar Jiruš rejoiced on the website hcsparta.cz.
However, the Tigers did not score in Karlovy Vary before that and thus lost the rest of their hope of a direct advance to the quarterfinals. The fifth Mladá Boleslav, who defeated Energia following raids, is holding the latter only on a theoretical level. “Unfortunately, we didn’t convert the chances. The performance of the opponent’s goalkeeper was very good.” commented on the website hokekv.cz the coach of Západočech Pavel Arnošt regarding the performance of David Hora, who caught 40 of 41 shots.
However, following a weaker period, Energie got back on the wave of good performances and to confirm direct promotion, it will be enough to get a point. The last place is already held by a certain Vítkovice, who are now only interested in gaining self-confidence. After ten defeats, they finally celebrated a victory when they showed a turnaround from 0:2 to 4:2 once morest Jihlava. They will most likely face Pardubice in the preliminary round.
Pardubice close to first place and drama on the brink
It is Dynamo with a lead of six points leading the lower group O participation in the play-offs. It has already won six times in a row, in the past week it overcame Přerov, Hradec Králové and České Budějovice. “In the first period, we did not catch Hradec’s pace, even though we eventually won it 4:0. In my opinion, we will not go far in the playoffs with such a performance.” said Pardubice coach Jakub Venc for hcdynamo.cz following the victory in the derby.
The second Plzeň defeated Litvínov, but then suffered the worst defeat of the season – they surprisingly conceded seven goals to Olomouc. She still has one head-to-head match once morest Pardubice, in the last round on the opponent’s ice, but before that she would have to get four more points, as she has a worse head-to-head record.
However, the main theme of the group is still the fight on the edge of the relegation battles and the retention group. Zlín has entered the playoffs, on the other hand, Přerov is the first certain participant in the rescue battles, and it is very likely that České Budějovice will not escape them either.
The Rams fell in Litvínov, only to beat Olomouc right following. They are three points ahead of the trio of Litvínov – Hradec Králové – Olomouc. The Hanáci gave Mountfield a lesson in productivity and won 6:2 in the overtime. “I would say that Olomouc showed a greater desire to win. We went to play once more, to see if we might do it and the result looks like that. Unfortunately, it’s the second game in a similar vein and the bottom of the table keeps getting closer to us.” the assistant coach of Hradec Král Lukáš Král lamented for mountfieldhk.cz.
However, following three losses, his team scored important points once morest the bravely fighting Přerov. The bison already know their fate, which even the new coach David Kudělka did not help to reverse. As part of an impulse, the club resorted to swapping captains between the youth teams, and while Kudělka headed for the junior from the youth team, Pavel Neuman went in the opposite direction.
The Haná team already has a very unpleasant series of ten defeats. “We can only fight and we fought. Maybe we might have equalized, in any case, I have to appreciate Hradec and my own boys. They left their souls on the ice today, they fought and they wanted,” praised at least Kudělka for hokejprerov.cz following the last failure. The last four teams will play in the retention group, while the points from the superstructure will be transferred into it.
Results of the DHL Junior Extraliga
2nd round play-off – group O standings in the play-offs:
HC Steelers Třinec – HC Sparta Prague 6:2 (3:1, 1:0, 2:1)
Playoff of the 16th round – group O participation in the play-offs:
HC ZUBR Přerov – HC Dynamo Pardubice 0:5 (0:2, 0:2, 0:1)
Finishing round 21 – group O participation in the play-offs:
HC Olomouc – Mountfield HK 6:2 (2:2, 2:0, 2:0)
24th round – group O standings in the play-offs:
HC Energie Karlovy Vary – White Tigers Liberec 3:0 (2:0, 0:0, 1:0)
HC VÍTKOVICE RIDERA – HC Kometa Brno 1:3 (1:0, 0:0, 0:3)
HC Sparta Prague – BK Mladá Boleslav 2:3 (1:1, 1:1, 0:1)
HC Steelers Třinec – HC Dukla Jihlava 8:4 (1:1, 5:1, 2:2)
24th round – group O participation in the play-offs:
HC ZUBR Přerov – HC Motor České Budějovice 1:3 (1:0, 0:2, 0:1)
HC Litvínov – Berani Zlín 4:2 (1:1, 1:0, 2:1)
HC Dynamo Pardubice – Mountfield HK 5:2 (4:0, 1:1, 0:1)
HC Olomouc – HC Škoda Plzeň 7:1 (2:0, 3:1, 2:0)
25th round – group O standings in the play-offs:
HC Sparta Prague – White Tigers Liberec 4:6 (2:2, 1:2, 1:2)
HC VÍTKOVICE RIDERA – HC Dukla Jihlava 4:2 (1:2, 1:0, 2:0)
HC Steelers Třinec – HC Kometa Brno 3:4 Mon. raids (1:2, 1:1, 1:0 – 0:0)
HC Energie Karlovy Vary – BK Mladá Boleslav 1:2 following sam. raids (1:0, 0:1, 0:0 – 0:0)
25th round – group O participation in the play-offs:
HC Škoda Plzeň – HC Litvínov 4:1 (1:1, 2:0, 1:0)
HC Motor Ceske Budejovice – HC Dynamo Pardubice 1:2 (0:1, 1:1, 0:0)
Berani Zlín – HC Olomouc 4:1 (0:1, 2:0, 2:0)
Mountfield HK – HC ZUBR Přerov 3:2 (1:0, 2:1, 0:1)
Table of the group O ranking in the play-offs
POŘ Team Z V VP PP P Score B 1 HC Oceláři Třinec 25 12 5 4 4 104:68 50 2 HC KOMETA BRNO 25 12 5 1 7 96:82 47 3 HC Sparta Praha 25 14 1 1 9 105:80 45 4 HC Energie Karlovy Vary 25 12 2 3 8 80:79 43 5 BK Mladá Boleslav 25 7 4 5 9 76:78 34 6 Bílí Tygři Liberec 25 9 2 2 12 63:78 33 7 HC Dukla Jihlava 25 9 2 2 12 66:83 33 8 HC VÍTKOVICE RIDERA 25 3 1 4 17 62:104 15
Table of group O participation in the play-offs
POŘ Team Z V VP PP P Score B 1 HC DYNAMO PARDUBICE 25 17 2 1 5 99:60 56 2 HC ŠKODA PLZEŇ 25 15 2 1 7 90:65 50 3 Berani Zlín 25 10 1 5 9 84:86 37 4 HC Litvínov 25 10 2 0 13 77:76 34 5 Mountfield HK, as 25 8 4 2 11 76:83 34 6 HC Olomouc 25 10 1 2 12 74:87 34 7 HC Motor České Budějovice 25 8 2 1 14 75:86 29 8 HC ZUBR Přerov 25 7 1 3 14 66:98 26
Photo: Lukáš Filipec, hcocelari.cz
