The hockey players of Třinec and Sparta rewrote the historical statistics of the extra league yesterday, as their match of the 28th round ended only in the 17th series of raids. This is a new record for the entire competition (in the regular season and in the playoffs), thanks to a hard shot by Roman Horák, the people of Prague were happy with the 2:1 victory.
The extra-league match between Třinec and Sparta was tied 1:1 after 60 minutes and after extra time. Then the spectators in the Werk Arena saw 34 raids, the drama ended with a hit by visiting Horák at the end of the series with number 17.
Home goalkeeper Ondřej Kacetl caught 13 attempts, Spartan Jakub Kovář one more. Extraliga does not remember such long raids.
The regular season record was held by Vítkovice and Litvínov, whose January match this year ended in the 13th series. The play off remembers 15 series between Pardubice and Olomouc in the final of the year 1993/94.
“Is it a record? Nice,” smiled Horák, who decided the marathon in a not so often seen way. He started at Kacetl at high speed, stretched and hit the top bar with a hard blow.
Such a raid is sometimes called a “Russian bluff”. So that Horák was inspired by his earlier work in Podolsk in the KHL?
“I saw that everyone was trying bluffs that didn’t work. So I tried to shoot. I was thinking on the substitution and I remembered that Marián Hossa used to convert raids like this. I’m glad it worked out for me,” answered the striker, who opened the raids with a goal in the first series, but did not give in the seventh.
How the raids went
Burner (SPA) – dalHe didn’t scare (TRI) – didn’t give, Konečný (SPA) – didn’t give, Crow (TRI) – didn’t give, Bitten (SPA) – didn’t give, Voženilek (TRI) – dalKestner (SPA) – did not give, Pánik (TRI) – did not give, Irving (SPA) – did not give, Růžička (TRI) – did not give.
Voženielek (TRI) – did not give, Sobotka (SPA) – did not give, Růžička (TRI) – did not give, Horák (SPA) – did not give, Nestrašil (TRI) – did not give, Mužík (SPA) – did not give, Haas (TRI) – dal, Kousal (SPA) – gavePánik (TRI) – not given, Kestner (SPA) – not given, Haas (TRI) – not given, Kousal (SPA) – not given, Kundrátek (TRI) – not given, Chlapík (SPA) – not given, Nestrašil (TRI) – not given, Konečný (SPA) – did not give, Sikora (TRI) – dal, Saturday (SPA) – dalSikora (TRI) – did not give, Forman (SPA) – did not give, Marinčin (TRI) – did not give, Sobotka (SPA) – did not give, Růžička (TRI) – did not give, Burner (SPA) – dal.
“A golf ball on the approach? Quite a special solution, it’s always either or. You expect him to send it between your legs or make a loop after the swing. When he rolls it under the cover like that, then it’s difficult,” added the goalkeeper of the defeated Kacetl .
In the basic set of five raid series, Sparta started, from the sixth series, Třinec players were the first to drive. When 20-year-old Oskar Haas came through in the ninth round with a beautiful “come here, where you go” loop, Kacetl could end the match with an interception. But he collected from Pavel Kousal.
A similar situation occurred in the fourteenth series. The 17-year-old Petr Sikora from Benjamin beat Kovař, but Vladimír Sobotka immediately equalized. The Spartan goalkeeper on the opposite side had to shake his head.
“I hope the coach doesn’t hear it, but at that moment I wished that we didn’t equalize again, that it was over,” Kovář smiled among the journalists. “It’s already in your head that you’re getting on the bus and going home,” he continued.
“Třinec has an excellent team and it’s a challenge for me to compare myself with its players. But so many series, that’s really a lot,” said Kovář. He went forward against Sikor with his hockey stick out and the youngster, who was provoked by the chanting of the home audience, finished under the crossbar.
“At that moment I was happy for him,” admitted Kovář. “It just turned out that he was young and he overdid it with the celebration. He was punished by the next raid when we equalized,” he added. He didn’t allow Sikor to score for the second time, so we had to wait until Horák’s hammer.
The Spartans beat the reigning champions Ocelář for the third time this season, although the match went to overtime twice and once ended in overtime.
“It’s always close matches with them. We’re happy about the balance, it’s a boost after previous years. On the other hand, we know that it’s only a basic part,” commented Horák. In the playoffs, Sparta lost to Třinca both in the finals of the 2021/22 season and in the quarterfinals of last season.
