Znojmo wins national junior championship

Orli Znojmo is the champion of the Czech Junior Extraliga, having beaten Energie Karlovy Vary, two games to one, in the final series.

Both teams were a bit of a surprise to make it this far, defeating teams that finished higher than them in the regular season in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds. Seventh-seeded Karlovy Vary swept both second-seeded Vítkovice and top-seeded Sparta Praha, while fifth-seeded Znojmo edged fourth-seeded Zlín and third-seeded Slavia Praha, each in three games. In the best-of-three final, the home team won each game.

Game 1 was played in Karlovy Vary on Sunday with the home side winning it's fifth consecutive playoff game, 7-3, before an enthusiastic crowd of 1,870. Tomáš Klíma scored 2 goals and added 2 assists, while Vladislav Habal turned away 31 of 34 shots. At the other end, Ondřej Kacetl was beaten on 7 of 24 shots.

Znojmo took to its home ice on Tuesday night needing a win to prolong the series, and they did so in a big way. Tomáš Rachůnek opened the scoring when he scored on a first-period penalty shot, and that opened the floodgates to a convincing 8-0 victory. Leading the charge were David Bartoš and Richard Jarůšek with 4 points each and Tomáš Komínek with 3. Kacetl rebounded from a shaky first game to post a 21-save shutout.

Photo: Rostislav Pfeffer, www.reklamafoto.cz.

In a decisive third game on Wednesday night, Znojmo continued its dominance by jumping out to a 3-0 first-period lead. As the contest started to become out of reach in the second, frustration began to show on the side of Karlovy Vary, leading way to a wild melée late in the period. Two players for Karlovy Vary and one for Znojmo were kicked out for fighting. By the third period, the outcome was clear and the home crowd of 1,914 began celebrating. The final score was 7-2, and the Znojmo players poured over the boards as the game ended.

"I don't know. We try to play attacking hockey," said Znojmo captain Jan Tojan about the barrage of goals, 27 in three games, in the final series. "Really, the superb fans here in Znojmo supported us and drove us forward. And because of that it challenged us to score."

Of the nine players in the Junior Extraliga playoffs to score 7 or more points, seven were Znojmo players. Leading the way were Komínek with 12 points and Rachůnak with 10. Czech World Junior defenceman Martin Pláněk led all rearguards with 8 points in 8 games.

Třinec forces game 7

On Wednesday night at O2 Arena in Prague, Slavia Praha and Oceláři Třinec met in the sixth game of their semifinal series with, as the saying goes, Slavia looking to end it and Třinec looking to extend it. Třinec had already fought off one match point on home ice on Monday, and were looking to take the series back to their barn for a decisive seventh game on Friday.

The two teams traded goals early on, and then midway through the first period Slavia found themselves with an extended five-on-three advantage. They blew a similar opportunity on Monday and weren't about to again, and Tomáš Svoboda took advantage of a fortuitous bounce when the puck was kicked onto his stick and he buried it to give Slavia the lead. In the second, Svoboda scored his second of the game when he came out from the corner and fired a perfect backhander off the far post and in to really put Slavia in the driver's seat.

But things turned around quickly.

Just over a minute after Svoboda's second goal, Lukáš Krajiček's point shot deflected off a Slavia defender attempting to block the shot and fluttered past goaltender Miroslav Kopřiva to make it a one-goal game. With less than three minutes to play in the middle frame, defenceman Josef Hrabal tied it with a bullet from the point that went top corner. And then, with only 1:24 left, Martin Růžička's weak-angle shot beat Kopřiva between the legs to give Třinec its first lead of the game.

Slavia's Jiří Vašíček (left) and Třinec's Václav Varaďa duke it out
late in game 6. Neither is likely to face suspension for game 7.
Photo: hc-slavia.cz.

In the third period, Slavia made several strong pushes to tie the game, but were unable to generate much sustained pressure. After an empty-net goal in the last minute put the game away, tempers boiled over and some players traded punches in the dying seconds. Generously, the referees dished out nothing more than minors and misconducts, so it's unlikely any player will miss the seventh game due to suspension.

While Třinec may seem to be in a favourable position, it should be remembered that Slavia also squandered a 3-1 lead in games against Liberec in the quarterfinals and then won the seventh game on the road. "Certainly, we haven't won," said Martin Růžička after the game.

After scoring 4 goals on Monday, Růžička's goal and 2 assists Wednesday lifted his playoff total to 25, setting a new Extraliga record for a single playoff year. "For us, what's really important is how the team plays and if we're winning. I don't care too much about individuals, it's tricky. We have to play as a team, win as a team, and if someone sets a record, it is only secondary. I'm really not thinking about it."

"It's good to know that we can handle these games against opponents that are better on paper, so we believe it now," Slavia's Tomáš Svoboda told the team's website. "We're definitely going to Třinec to win." 

Game 7 will be played Friday, starting at 18:10. It will be televised and webcasted by ČT4.

Růžička scores 4 and Třinec stays alive with convincing win

After compiling a regular-season record of 26-5-8-13 and then winning the first round and the first game of the semifinal, Oceláři Třinec lost 3 games in a row to Slavia Praha and found themselves needing to do the same in order to advance.

Martin Růžička acknowledges the crowd after his 4-goal
performance helped Třinec stave off elimination. Photo: Marian
Ježowicz, hcocelari.cz.

They took the first step toward that goal with a dominant 6-1 victory on home ice on Monday night. They were led by 4 goals from Martin Růžička, who now has 13 goals and 22 points in 11 playoff games, making him the runaway leader in both categories.

Růžička scored once in the first and twice more in a 1:13 span in the second period to complete his natural hattrick before the game's midpoint. Slavia's best chance to get into the game was early in the second when, trailing 1-0, they had a two-man advantage for 1:17. Not only did they fail to score, but the best chance belonged to Třinec, when Martin Adamský intercepted a pass and got a short-handed breakaway, only to be denied by Miroslav Kopřiva.

Otherwise, it was not Kopřiva's night, however, as he was beaten for 5 goals on 20 shots, before being lifted in favour of Dominik Furch after Růžička scored his fourth of the night at 12:28 of the middle frame.

At the opposite end of the ice Peter Hamerlík was seeking his second shutout of the playoffs until he was beaten by a perfect shot by Slavia's Lukáš Endál with 3:31 remaining.

25-year-old Růžička played two seasons in the WHL with the Everett Silvertips and Lethbridge Hurricanes, but recorded only 16 and 10 points, respectively, and was never drafted. His first four years in the Czech Extraliga with Sparta Praha and Orli Znojmo were equally unproductive, though he was part of a championship team with Sparta in 2007. The last two seasons he has really blossomed into a top scorer, recording 47 and 50 points, respectively. He led Třinec this year in scoring with 24 goals and 26 assists, and was fifth overall in the league. 

"I'm obviously pleased about the goals. This time they went in for me. It was very nice, but the main thing is that we won," Růžička said of his performance in the do-or-die game.

"We knew that we could succeed if we got back to playing the way we did before when we won. Now we have a second key game. But we have a lot of energy, there is nothing to save it for. Let's go to Prague and lay it all out there and win."

The series continues Wednesday night at Prague's O2 Arena. The game begins at 18:10 and will be televised live on ČT4. If necessary, a seventh game will be back in Třinec on Friday night. 

Operation: Extract Petr Klíma

by Jennifer Conway

Diary of a Mad Sports Historian

When Petr Klíma walked away from the Czechoslovakian national team in Nussdorf, West Germany  on August 18, 1985, he made history as the first Czech player to defect directly to an NHL team.

That night he was to meet Detroit Red Wings executive vice-president Jim Lites and assistant coach Nick Polano in the woods near the hotel. When Klíma didn’t appear, Lites and Polano went to the hotel. The Czechoslovak police knew Polano, so Lites and their interpreter had to look for Klíma on their own. They couldn’t find him.

Suddenly, Klíma appeared, walking towards their car. He  told them he wouldn’t leave unless the Red Wings agreed to help get his girlfriend out of Czechoslovakia as well. Lites agreed instantly and told Klíma to get in the car.

But Klíma still wouldn’t leave, insisting on going back into the hotel for some personal effects. Five minutes later, he reappeared, got into the car, and they all sped off, eager to put as much distance between Klíma and the hotel as they could before the team’s 11 pm bed check.

Klíma was now officially a defector.

“How fast does this car go?” he asked anxiously. Their rented Mercedes’ top speed was 200 kilometres per hour; fast enough to relieve everyone’s anxiety about being followed. “I feared that one of these times, on one of these defections, the Czechs were going to make an example with guns, if necessary,” Polano later said.

Their first stop was the American consulate in Stuttgart. Polano hadn’t actually believed the escape plan would work, so the Red Wings front office hadn’t even bothered to contact the consulate in advance. Nor had they envisioned the difficulties they’d encounter with the Czechoslovak authorities: Klíma’s passport had been confiscated upon the team’s arrival in West Germany, and without any identifying papers, it was going to be nearly impossible for Polano and Lites to prove who their teenaged charge was.

Klíma and Polano moved from city to city in West Germany while waiting for the visa to clear the red tape, sometimes pushing the Mercedes to its mechanical limits in order to avoid the Czechoslovak police. “We didn’t want to take any chances. We just kept moving from city to city,” Polano said.

Polano and Lites also made Klíma wait a whole week before contacting his parents back home in Chomutov. As it turned out, Klíma’s defection was big news in Czechoslovakia, and the Detroit execs had been correct in assuming they’d be actively pursued.

Still, they didn’t want their newest asset to feel like a prisoner. With a Red Wings exec following him like a shadow, Klíma played a little tennis and did some sight-seeing. They only let him loose on his own once, with disastrous results:

“We let him take the Mercedes for a ride, and he wrecked it,” Polano recalled. “It’s a good thing it was a Mercedes, a really heavy car. He did some pretty good damage to it, but wasn’t scratched himself. We pushed that thing into the Hertz garage and got the hell out of there as fast as we could.”

After five weeks of hiding and waiting, Klíma finally made it to the U.S. on September 22, 1985 with the help of U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese and Assistant A.G. Lowell Jensen. Polano didn’t accompany him; instead he went to Vienna to meet with Klíma’s girlfriend and personally escort her to Germany for visa processing.

When Polano finally returned to the U.S. there was no fanfare. Instead, he found a note from American Express, politely inquiring about the $35,000 charged by the team during Operation Extract Klíma.

Follow Jennifer Conway at Diary of a Mad Sports Historian or on Twitter @NHLhistorygirl.

Vítkovice advances to finals, Slavia 1 win away

There will be a new champion of the Czech Extraliga in 2011, as defending champion Eaton Pardubice was eliminated in the semifinals. On Sunday, Vítkovice Steel became the first team to qualify for this year's final with a 3-2 shootout victory to win the series, four games to one.

Vítkovice played early on like they wanted to finish the series and scored in the early going, but the goal was negated after a lengthy video review determined that the net was slightly ajar. Undaunted, the home team kept the pressure on and quickly got a pair of goals 45 seconds from Petr Vrána and Viktor Ujčík apart for a 2-0 lead. The score stayed that way into the third period when Pardubice got a quick pair of its own. Petr Koukal finally solved Roman Málek on a power-play and then Aleš Píša tied the game 45 seconds later. After no goals were scored in 10 minutes of overtime or in the first five rounds of the shootout, Jiří Burger beat Martin Růžička in round six for the series-winning goal. Ružička relieved Adam Svoboda in the Pardubice net, who stopped 40 shots in 70 minutes of hockey.

"For me, personally, that we finished so quickly," began Ujčík, regarding the importance of finishing off the series in 5 games. "Of course, (age) 39 is around the corner and we won four games to one, so that's perfect. I can rest a bit, definitely mentally and physically."

"I don't ever want to wish to play anybody," he continued, when asked who he wanted to face in the final. "But if I have to say who I really want this time, it would be Slavia," said the ex-Slavia and Třinec forward.

They could find out their opponent as early as Monday night, as Slavia Praha travels to Třinec to try to wrap up that series; they currently lead it 3-1. Třinec, who were the league's top team during the regular season, won the first game but have now lost three in a row, including two in Prague on Friday and Saturday.

Miroslav Kopřiva turned away everything he faced on Saturday
night. Photo: Pavel Vrtiška, hc-slavia.cz.

On Friday night, Slavia's Vladimír Roth opened the scoring in the first period and then finished it with a goal in overtime, as Slavia won 4-3 to take the lead in the series. The following night, goaltender Miroslav Kopřiva was the hero, as he stopped all 37 shots he faced in a 4-0 victory. The game was played before a crowd of 13,052, the largest of the Extraliga playoffs so far, but a number sure to be eclipsed if Slavia advances to the final.

Game 5 goes Monday at 18:10 in Třinec, and will be televised live on ČT4.

Znojmo-Karlovy Vary in Jr Extraliga finals

After dropping the first games of their best-of-three series on the road, both Prague-based teams in the Junior Extraliga semifinals needed to sweep two games at home to advance to the finals. Neither was successful.

Tomáš Klíma was the hero for Karlovy Vary in their Junior
Extraliga semifinal versus Sparta. Photo: Jan Beneš,
www.sporting-photo.com.

On Wednesday, Energie Karlovy Vary went into Tesla Arena and defeated Sparta Praha 3-2 in a shootout, knocking out the league's first-overall team in the regular season. After scoring twice in game 1, Karlovy Vary's Tomáš Klíma added 2 more goals in game 2, including the shootout winner, and an assist. 20-year-old Slovak-native Klíma played most of the year in the professional Extraliga and, after the team lost to Slavia in the first round of the playoffs, joined the junior team for its playoff run.

On Thursday, Orli Znojmo had its first chance to join Karlovy Vary in the finals, but met a Slavia Praha team firing on all cylinders. Michal Hellar scored twice as Slavia built up a 5-0 lead midway through the game before Znojmo battled back with a pair of scores to make it a 5-2 final. Znojmo was very upset with the work of referee Štěpán Souček, who awarded Slavia with 8 power-plays compared to 3 for Znojmo, and felt there were several infractions not called against Slavia. In the final minute of play, coach Martin Stloukal was ejected from the game.

In Friday's rubber match, Slavia built up a 2-1 lead halfway through the first period, but after that Znojmo played a very sound defensive game, surrendering very few quality scoring chances, even while penalty killing. Adam Havlík and Richard Jarůšek scored in the second period, and they held on the rest of the way.

Both games at Eden were well-attended by a large contingent of Znojmo supporters, who even outnumbered the Slavia fans on Friday, likely due to the early start time and the fact that most Slavia fans were more concerned with the Extraliga playoff game in the evening.

The Junior Extraliga finals start on Sunday in Karlovy Vary at 17:30. The series then shifts to Znojmo for games Tuesday and, if necessary, Wednesday.

Defending champs Pardubice on the brink

After winning eight consecutive playoff games at home, Eaton Pardubice dropped back-to-back games against Vítkovice Steel on Wednesday and Thursday, and now find themselves in a very difficult situation.

After earning a split on the road to start the series, Pardubice looked to be in a good position heading to the friendly confines of (their) ČEZ Arena. However, they were stymied by Vítkovice goaltender Roman Málek in game 3, who stopped all 34 shots he faced, and lost 3-0, creating a nearly-must-win situation in game 4. They turned in a solid performance and, on the strength of second-period goals by Tomáš Zohorna and Jan Starý, were three minutes away from evening the series. However, Petr Vrána tied the score with 2:47 remaining in regulation time and then struck again in overtime to capture the game for Vítkovice, giving them a commanding 3-1 series lead.

Pardubice will have to get more traffic in front of Vítkovice goalie
Roman Málek of they hope to prolong their title defence. Photo:
Jan Jedlička, hcpce.cz.

The defending champions now find themselves in the unenviable position of having to win three games in a row, two of which would be on the road. Their biggest challenge seems to be a way to solve Málek in the Vítkovice goal, who has been nearly unbeatable.

"More traffic in front of the net, shooting more and going hard at Málek for loose pucks," was Starý's suggestion for what they have to do better. "Continue working hard, but especially around the net, not letting up there."

The series resumes on Sunday at Ostrava's ČEZ Arena, where Vítkovice will try to advance to the finals.

On Friday and Saturday, the other semifinal series resumes in Prague, with Slavia hosting Oceláři Třinec in games 3 and 4. The series is tied 1-1.

Friday is a busy day for die-hard Slavia hockey fans. The U20 team can advance to the Junior Extraliga finals with a win over Orli Znojmo at Eden. That game begins at 15:30. Fans then will quckly have to travel from Kubánské náměstí to Českomoravská to catch the opening faceoff at O2 Arena at 18:10.