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.

Walker and Pohl try to lead Vítkovice in Spengler

They didn't get the kind of start they were hoping for at the 2011 Spengler Cup, but fortunately for HC Vítkovice, the group stage of the tournament is very forgiving.

Nathan Walker (21) and Petr Pohl (55) have provided all of
Vítkovice's offence so far. blesk.cz

After losing 7-1 to Team Canada on Monday and 2-1 to HC Davos on Tuesday, Vítkovice finishes third in the Cattini Group and will now play a quarterfinal game on Thursday. Monday's game couldn't have started any worse, as the Canadians shelled goaltender Martin Falter for five goals in the first period.

The one moment for the Czech squad came midway through the third period, when Nathan Walker took a pass from Petr Pohl, fought off a Canadian defenceman and fired a shot off the post and in for the team's only goal of the game. At 17 years and 10 months, he is the youngest player to score a goal in Spengler Cup history. The Australian was chosen Vítkovice's player of the game and the Davos crowd cheered wildly both times his name was announced.

"It was a great feeling, very emotional for me," he said on the club's website about the moment he scored. "I just hope it will continue and the boys join me and mainly that things start to go better for the team."

Walker's production did continue the following day and things did go better for his team, but other than linemate Pohl, no new players registered points. Against Davos, the duo had a two-on-one and Pohl finished it to give Vítkovice a 1-0 lead early in the second period.

"First of all, Nathan won a battle for the puck in the defensive zone. The puck just went to me," explained Pohl. "Then we managed to get away two-on-one. Nathan at that time went very well to the net, which allowed me to gain time and space. Even so, I hit a defenceman, but then the puck came back on my stick and I had the opportunity. This time I successfully finished it."

Roman Málek, who stopped a penalty shot early in the game, was solid in goal. However, Rakovník's Petr Tatiček scored twice for the tournament hosts before the middle frame finished, and they held on for a 2-1 victory.

Starting Thursday, all games are sudden-death. Vítkovice's quarterfinal game starts at 15:00 Central European Time and will be against the second-place team from the Torriani Group, which will probably be the Kloten Flyers. The game can be seen in the Czech Republic and Slovakia on Nova Sport, throughout Europe on Eurosport 2, and in Canada on TSN2.