Pardubice and Liberec hold on to win on road

Written for Eurohockey.com:

A pair of close, tight-checking games were played on Tuesday night in Czech Extraliga playoff action. Pardubice held off a late charge by Vítkovice to win 3-2 and even the series 2-2, while Liberec got a late empty-net goal to win 3-1 in České Budějovice and take a series lead of the same score.

Vítkovice 2 - 3 Pardubice
(Best-of-seven series tied 2-2)

Jan Starý opened the scoring at the 28-second mark.
Photo: Petr Kotala, hc-vitkovice.cz.

Pardubice evened the series thanks to offence provided by Jan Starý in the first 40 minutes and great goaltending by Martin Růžička in the final 20.

Starý scored a pair of goals for visiting Pardubice in the first half of the opening period to give his team a quick 2-0 lead. On the first shift of the game, a neutral-zone turnover led to the first goal. Eight minutes later, a seemingly harmless shot from the boards found its way into the net.

In the second period, though, Vítkovice got those two goals back. Just past the game's midpoint, Petr Pohl took a pass in the neutral zone, skated in on Růžička, and beat him with a backhander to make it 2-1. Then with 1:19 left i the middle frame, they tied it when a pinball shot from Lukáš Klimek went off the skate of Radovan Somík, the back of Růžička, and in.

The tie was short-lived, though. Just 25 seconds later, Starý got his third point of the evening, setting up Václav Kočí with the eventual winning goal.

It was all Vítkovice in the third period, but they could not beat Růžička. As the final horn went there was a flurry of action around the Pardubice net, but they kept it out to preserve the victory.


České Budějovice 1 - 3 Liberec
(Liberec leads best-of-seven series 3-1)

Fans who watched Tuesday night's game in České Budějovice saw a great goaltending duel between Mountfield's Jakub Kovář and Bílí Tygři's Tomáš Vošvrda. For nearly two periods, the duo was unbeatable. However, Liberec's top line lived up to its billing on this night, as the trio of Petr Nedvěd, Tomáš Urban and Milan Bartovič put on their workboots and provided all of the team's offence.

Before the goals came, Vošvrda was the busier of the two netminders, as his club was back on its heels for a long stretch when they took four penalties in a row. Late in the second period, Liberec started applying the pressure, and Kovář made a blocker save, but Nedvěd put in the rebound in traffic with 4:31 to go in the frame.

The two teams traded goals early in the third. Just 21 seconds in, Nedvěd's shot was deflected mid-air by Urban for the second goal that Kovář had virtually no chance on. Just over two minutes later, the home side got one back when Pavel Kašpařík scored on another deflection.

With five minutes to go, Kašpařík had Budějovice's best chance to tie it from in close, but couldn't beat Vošvrda. Finally, Nedvěd recorded his third point of the game with an empty-net goal to put it away.


Liberec will now be looking to put the series away on home ice on Friday, where they will be looking to advance to the semifinals. Pardubice will also play at home on that night, where they will play the critical swing game against Vítkovice.

Vítkovice and Budějovice even series on the road

Written for Eurohockey.com:

A pair of Czech Extraliga clubs faced the prospect of going home in their quarterfinal series down 2-0, but both rallied to win and even their respective series. Vítkovice won in a shootout in Pardubice, while České Budějovice scored five times in the third period to win in Liberec.

Pardubice 2 - 3 Vítkovice (shootout)
(Best-of-seven series tied 1-1)

Filip Šindelář was looking through traffic for much of Friday's game.

Photo:  Jan Jedlička, hcpce.cz.

The visitors from the Silesio-Moravian border city of Ostrava never led in game two of their quarterfinal series in Pardubice, but they got timely goaltending from Filip Šindelář, had an answer both times they were scored on during regulation and eventually prevailed in a shootout to win the hockey game.

Pardubice captain Petr Koukal opened the scoring on a first-period power play when he won a battle for the rebound. After Šindelář made a great save in the opening minute of the second to prevent his team from falling behind two goals, the reliable duo of Jiří Burger and Viktor Ujčík worked some magic to tie the score, which was finished off by Ujčík's bullet that beat Martin Růžička.

As the game's midpoint approached, Vítkovice got a chance to to take the lead when they got a chance on the power play, but just as they did in game one, they surrendered a shorthanded goal, as Šindelář was helpless to stop Tomáš Zohorna's one-timer on a two-on-one. They did get it back, though, in the last minute of the second period while the teams played four-on-four; Jan Káňa had an easy tap in after a miscue by Pardubice forward Jan Kolář (not to be confused by the defenceman on the same team with the same name; they are unrelated).

Pardubice got a pair of power-play chances in the first half of the third period and was dangerous on them, but Šindelář stood tall in goal, making key stops against both of Pardubice's Jan Kolářs to keep the game tied. In overtime, he denied Kolář the forward once more.

In the shootout, Šindelář stopped both Pardubice shots he faced, one of them a nice poke-check against the forward Kolář, who just couldn't buy a break in this game. At the other end, Burger and Ujčík scored on two of Vítkovice's two three attempts to end the game.

Liberec 4 - 6 České Budějovice
(Best-of-seven series tied 1-1)

Jakub Kovář made 42 saves to help his team win on Friday.
Photo: Vladimíř Jína, hcbilitygri.cz.

With exactly one minute left in the second period, Marek Tročinský streaked across the blueline, took a feed from Daniel Špaček, and and perfectly fired a high shot over the glove of Jakub Kovář, the Budějovice goaltender who had given them fits to that point in the game, to give Liberec a 2-1 lead.

With a lead after two periods against the sometimes offensively challenged Mountfield club, it looked like the White Tigers were in good shape to take a two-game lead in the series. Early in the third period, while shorthanded, Lukáš Vantuch scored his second goal of the game when he got his own rebound and scored to make it 3-1. The Liberec squad appeared to be on its way. But the game changed, and it changed quickly.

Just 35 seconds later, Mountfield managed to cash in on their power play, which was still in progress, Martin Podlešák tipped in František Ptaček's point shot. Then, 43 seconds after that, the visitors caught a bit of a break when Peter Mikúš threw the puck toward the Liberec net and it hit forward Pavel Kašpařík on the instep of his right skate and went in to tie the score. Less than three minutes later, Jakub Langhammer was in the right place at the right time to give the club from South Bohemia its first lead of the game.

The barrage of goals in the period was not over yet, though. Liberec did tie the score when Tomáš Urban took a pass from Vantuch and fired a shot just under the crossbar. It was the fifth goal of the period, which was not yet half over.

Mountfield retook the lead with 7:08 on the clock when, on a two-on-one, Tomáš Mertl found Rudolf Červený, who put a perfect shot inside the post past the glove of Marek Pinc. But the dangerous Liberec offence wasn't just going to give up, and when Budějovice took a too-many-men penalty with 5:54 to go, the game was nearly tied again.

Petr Nedvěd, the league's leading scorer through the regular season but held pointless in this game, got his best chance of the night on the late power play, but was robbed at point-blank range by Kovář, who also took care of Michal Bárta's attempt from further out right afterward. Almost lost in all the third period scoring was the goaltending of Kovář, who has been the difference in so many of his team's games this season and was the reason they were within striking distance after two periods. He stopped 42 of 46 shots on the night.

Jiří Šimánek's empty-netter, the seventh goal of the period, made the final score 6-4. It was Šimánek's second goal of the game, part of a three-point game.


Both series are now idle for two days while the other two quarterfinal series, Sparta Praha-Brno and Plzeň-Zlín, get underway. The third and fourth games in Vítkovice and České Budějovice will be played on Monday and Tuesday.

And then there were none: Czech teams swept out of RBS quarters

With three teams in the field of eight at the Red Bulls Salute, there was a decent chance of a Czech team winning the 2011 European Trophy, or at least qualifying for the finals. Instead, all three lost their quarterfinal match-ups and will now battle for fifth to eighth places. České Budějovice was blown out by Jokerit Helsinki, while Plzeň and Pardubice both lost close ones.

Pardubice goaltender Martin Růžička had a lot of traffic to deal
with in Salzburg. GEPA-Pictures, redbull.com. 

In the early game in Vienna, the South Bohemian club which plays under the corporate name Mountfield stayed close for one period. After Ben Eaves opened the scoring early for Jokerit, Jiří Šimánek tied it on a rebound after goaltender Frans Tuohimaa had stopped Pavel Kašpářik on a breakaway but was unable to freeze the puck. Less than two minutes later, however, Antti Kerälä put the Finnish club back in front to stay. Not even the goaltending of Jakub Kovář, who was kept off the Czech national team this weekend, could help his team's cause. Three goals in the first half of the second period put it away, and the game eventually finished 7-2.

In the latter two games, which ran concurrently, HC Plzeň 1929 took on Swedish club Luleå HF in Vienna and HC ČSOB Pojišťovna Pardubice played an EC Red Bull squad that was on its home ice in Salzburg.

Plzeň fell behind 1-0 in the second, then got an equalizing goal on a blast from Jan Kovář early in the third period. After killing off a late penalty, captain Martin Straka got a chance to win it on a breakaway in the dying seconds. However, the combination of chasing down the puck and trying to get his shot off in time caused him to lose his balance and the save was a relatively easy one for David Rautio. After a scoreless five-minute overtime period, the game was decided in a shootout.  Luleå's second shooter, Johan Harju, scored the only goal, one which goaltender Adam Svoboda actually re-directed into his own net. Rautio stopped all three shots he faced to vault his team into the semi-finals.

Pardubice was the Czech Republic's last chance to be represented in the tournament's final four, but they fell 2-1 to the host team. All the scoring was done in a five-minute span late in the second period. Petr Koukal scored Pardubice's lone goal, but Tyler Redenbach scored the game-winner with 1:25 to go in the middle frame. Late in the third, Martin Růžička was pulled for a sixth attacker, but the Czech visitors were unable to beat goaltender Marty Turco.

Saturday's semifinal match-ups will be Jokerit against Luleå and Salzburg against Linköpings HC, who beat fellow Swedish club Frölunda in the other quarterfinal. In placement games, Frölunda plays Pardubice in Salzburg, while Plzeň and Budějovice play each other in Vienna.

Red Bulls Salute on TV

The quarterfinals of the Red Bulls Salute, the playoff round to determine the winner of the 2011 European Trophy, will be played on Friday night and Czech fans will be able to see two of their teams on television. The two games from Vienna, Jokerit-České Budějovice and Plzeň-Luleå, will be televised live on Sport1 at 17:15 and 20:30, respectively. A third Czech team, Pardubice takes on the host Red Bull Salzburg team at 20:30; apparently, it will receive no domestic television coverage.

Sport1 will also carry both semifinal games on Saturday, and the third-place and championship games on Sunday.

Besides the Czech Republic, the Sport1 broadcasts will also be available in Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. ServusTV carries games in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, while Viasat is televising the action to the Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Fans in Finland can watch on MTV3. It should be noted that these other carriers will likely choose the quarterfinal games that are most appealing in their regions.

All games will be streamed live online on laola1.tv and servustv.com. Unfortunately for Pardubice fans, these webcasts will be blacked out in the Czech Republic, as well as all countries that receive the Sport1, Viasat or MTV3 telecasts, to protect the television rightsholders. Other than making the five-hour drive south to Salzburg, the best these fans can do is receive online updates and hope for a win, which would mean they could watch their team play on Saturday and Sunday.

Red Bulls Salute Schedule:

Friday, December 16:

17:15 Jokerit Helsinki - HC Mountfield České Budějovice (quarterfinal, Vienna), Sport1

17:15 Frölunda Indians - Linköpings HC (quarterfinal, Salzburg)

20:30 HC Plzeň 1929 - Luleå HF (quarterfinal, Vienna), Sport1

20:30 HC ČSOB Pojišťovna Pardubice - EC Red Bull Salzburg (quarterfinal, Salzburg)

Saturday, December 17:

17:15 Losers of quarterfinals in Salzburg (qualification, Salzburg)

17:15 Winners of quarterfinals in Vienna (semifinal, Vienna), Sport1

20:30 Winners of quarterfinals in Salzburg (semifinal, Salzburg), Sport1

20:30 Losers of quarterfinals in Vienna (qualification, Vienna)

Sunday, December 18:

14:00 Losers of qualification games (7th/8th place, Salzburg)

17:15 Winners of qualification games (5th/6th place, Salzburg),

17:15 Losers of semifinal games (3rd/4th place, Vienna), Sport1

20:30 Winners of semifinal games (championship game, Vienna), Sport1

4 Czech teams still in contention for European Trophy

All teams were in action on Saturday in the European Trophy, as positioning starts to become clearer. Most teams have now played six of their eight games, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the Red Bull Salute in December.

Prague's two teams did little to help their causes, each losing on home ice to cement their positions at the bottom of the North Division. At Tesla Arena, Sparta was scored on four times in the second period and fell 4-2 to visiting Jokerit Helsinki. The Finnish club was particularly dominant during a 10-minute stretch in the second where Sparta failed to register a shot on goal, and had numerous chances of their own to build up a commanding lead. Sparta came back strong in the third and scored twice, but it was too little, too late. Meanwhile, across town in Eden, Slavia and Helsinki IFK went to a shootout tied 2-2, where Mikael Granlund provided the heroics for the visitors. No stranger to providing highlight-reel goals, Granlund beat goaltender Dominik Furch with a move similar to the one used by Peter Forsberg in the 1994 Olympics to secure the victory.

Four other Czech teams in action on Saturday, however, are still in contention for positions in the Red Bull Salute, the eight-team event in Austria that will determine the winner of the European Trophy.

In České Budějovice, Jakub Kovář made 18 saves as Mountfield shut out the Vienna Capitals 4-0. The win allowed them to leap-frog over Plzeň 1929 into second place in the East Division. Plzeň picked up only a single point as they fell to visiting Slovan Bratislava 5-4 in a shootout. The home team trailed 4-1 midway through the game before scoring three in a row to force overtime. They were led in a losing cause by two goals from Radek Duda and two assists each from Martin Straka and Petr Sýkora. As Mountfield and Plzeň each have two games in hand on division-leading Slovan, they could both conceivably qualify for the Red Bull Salute.

HC Pardubice sits in top spot in the South Division with 12 points, two ahead of HV71 and three ahead of Adler Mannheim. This comes after beating rival Kometa Brno 5-4. Martin Bartek scored the game-winner with 2:07 remaining in regulation time. Pardubice and HV71 each have two games remaining, while Mannheim has three. The loss relegates Kometa to last in the division with five points.

Bílí Tygři Liberec sits in fourth place in the South with seven points, but remain in contention because they have two games in hand on most other teams. They helped their cause on Saturday night by taking two points in Linkoping, with veteran Petr Nedvěd scoring the shootout winner.

Liberec is back in action on Sunday in Oulu against Kärpät, while Plzeň, Brno and Pardubice all host Finnish clubs. The Kometa Brno-Jokerit Helsinki game can be seen at 18:00 CET on ČT4 or online at ct24.cz/sport. All games can be followed live online at europeantrophy.com/schedule.php.