Even on the third attempt, the Košice team could not win over Zvolen in the ongoing season.
After two losses after overtime and raids, they suffered a 0:5 home debacle, in which they did not find a recipe for the excellent catcher Pavel Kantor and even failed to use a five-on-three power play twice, in the second period for 50 seconds and in the third for up to one and a half minutes.
Zvolenčany started their journey to a high victory after just 40 seconds, when Cole Cassels and Joona Jääskeläinen got outnumbered and the Finnish sharpshooter scored for the first time in the season against the club whose shirt he wore in the previous three seasons.
“He knew what he had to do today. Since he was playing against his former club today, he wrote something to the bank in the dressing room.
I’m glad that it worked out for him today and he basically scored the winning goal. Let it continue like this,” commented Peter Zuzin, Zvolena’s excellent introduction with a three-pointer, with a smile.
The home team’s bad start took them by surprise, and the guests had more of the game in the first period. At the end of the eleventh minute, Jakub Ferenc hit Patrik Marcinek’s goalpost hard and finally received a five-minute penalty and went to the showers prematurely.
VIDEO: Cut of the match Košice – Zvolen
The home team pressed, the guests scored goals
For more than three minutes, the Košice team confirmed their excellent statistics in the weak points and did not let the Chosen Ones have any chance. An unfortunate moment came.
At first, the line judges did not consider the throw of the visitors to the rear guard as a prohibited release, and immediately Patrik Rogoň, in an attempt to send the puck to safety again, threw over the Plexiglas.
The guests went to a power play with two players, which was used by Peter Zuzin less than five minutes before the end of the first period.
In the first eight minutes of the second period, the home team came under tremendous pressure, they won 10-0 on shots on goal, but Kantor and his teammates pulled the blinds perfectly.
And so came the final knockout, which the guests needed 73 seconds in the middle of the match. First, the very first Zvolen shot on goal in the second period from Patrik Marcinek’s stick ended up behind Patrik Jurčák, and then Lukáš Lunter shot from behind the defender to make it 0:4.
“In Nitra on Wednesday, despite the loss, we played probably the best game of the season in terms of commitment and effort. We were a bit worried about not falling mentally today and talking about it before the game.
But it’s easier said than done. Right from the beginning there were many things against us, in the second period we came back, we had chances and then they got two quick easy goals, which was the turning point of the match, after which we could not get back,” Košice coach Dan Ceman assessed.
The sixteen-year-old Hussar lived to see it
Zvolen’s fourth goal was scored by Patrik Jurčák in the middle of the match. His place was taken by the sixteen-year-old Jakub Husár, who was on the extra league match roster for the tenth time, but also scored for the first time.
And he did very well conceding only one goal. Less than five minutes before the end, he was shot by Matej Macek from close range on the power play, who closed the score of the match with the fifth Zvolen goal.
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“I took two deep breaths and went. I just tried to calm down, to keep my cool and show what I’ve got.
I managed to do two procedures right away, and then the nervousness subsided. In the end, it wasn’t so bad, it’s a shame about that one goal,” Husár described his first feelings.
Husár has been commuting between three Košice teams since the beginning of the season.
“I have a lot of opportunities and a lot of time in goal, so it’s a great experience and a great season for me,” said Husár, according to whom you can’t compare catching in the youth categories with that in the extra league.
“You can’t compare it, today everything, including the shots, was five times faster than in the junior league,” he added.
With the number 88 on his jersey, he reminded older fans of goalkeeper Miroslav Lipovský, who together with Július Hudáček won one of the Košice titles in 2009.
“I chose it after Andrej Vasilevsky from the NHL, who is my role model,” answered Husár when asked about the number on the jersey.
They found a place on the ice
While Košice lost four out of five games in the new year, Zvolen lost in the last game of last year after the arrival of coach Antonín Stavjaňa, but since then they have extended their winning streak to five games.
“He brought some new things. Everyone knows their place on the ice. We’re still working on it and it’s moving us forward. Even today, we stayed calm for the whole 60 minutes, we gave birth to what we had to and didn’t get out of control. And that’s what led us to that result.
Of course, our nervousness also subsided and with good results came a good mood in the cabin, but we cannot succumb to it.
We still have a lot of games ahead of us and we want to move even higher,” said experienced forward Zuzin, who contributed to a great victory in Košice with a goal and two assists, about Zvolen’s wake-up call after the change of coach.
He was joined by goalkeeper Kantor, who picked up his third clean sheet of the season in Košice.
“Our game has changed, although I honestly don’t understand it very much. I mainly take care of goalkeeping things. But from my point of view, we don’t let the opponents have as many chances as before, and then we also catch better.
And of course the atmosphere in the dressing room is also better. So far, everything has settled down, but we probably won’t win until the end of the season, and we have to prepare for the fact that some losses will come and we will have to dig out of them as quickly as possible,” he added.
From the bottom to the fight for the top six
“Each victory gives the team a positive charge. We managed to surprise in Nitra and since then we have been managing those matches.
The team has received such a spirit and they already believe that they can handle crisis moments,” said coach Stavjaňa in an interview about the winning streak, who admitted that he was not going to take any engagements this season and preferred to prepare a team somewhere for the next season. He was convinced only by the insistence of the head of the Zvolen club, Rastislav Čaček
“Of course, when you win, every job is so much better. I especially want us to have such a performance that would give us a chance to succeed in the playoffs,” added Stavjaňa.
With a series of victories, Zvolen is moving up the table, possibly even fighting for sixth place.
“We will play as best as we can until the last game. We will collect points and see how it crystallizes. We would definitely like to fight for the top six and not play before the round. But I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves,” Zuzin thinks.
Even coach Stavjaňa does not want to overtake. “It’s still a long way off, there are still fifteen games left and that’s a lot of points. We’re going up now and we’ll definitely want some more progress,” he added.
