The Vladimir Dzurilla Cup is in the hands of HC 05 Banska Bystrica again after winning the Slovak Extraliga for the third consecutive time.
photo: Gabriela Ganzova
HC 05 Banska Bystrica made it again. They won the Slovak Extraliga title for the third year in a row and became the second club after HC Kosice in Slovak history to do so.
The club from the centre of Slovakia defeated HK Nitra in five games and won the final series 4-1. “It’s incredible. It’s been a long, hard and difficult year. Players have done an amazing job. Different guys stepped up in different times. It probably looks easy while we lost only four games in the play-offs, but it was really hard. So huge credit for my players and obviously for Nitra too. For us, it feels great,” said Dan Ceman, coach of Banska Bystrica, after the fifth game of the final series.
The native Canadian replaced Vladimir Orszagh right before the start of the season and carried on his work as good as he could. Banska Bystrica went through the whole season as the leading team while they won the regular season and continued winning in the play-offs.
In the quarter-finals they were facing a strong team from Detva, which made the play-off spot after a qualification round with Nove Zamky for the first time in their history. And they showed it on ice straightaway. The beginning of the series went very well for them and after two games the series was tied 1-1. But after that, Banska Bystrica showed their power. They won the next three games and advanced to the semi-final round where they faced HK Poprad.
For Banska Bystrica it was a difficult team because they had lost four out of five games in the regular season against them. And whole series just reaffirmed it again. After four games it was tied 2-, but Banska Bystrica got a very important win on home ice and the defending champion was one game away from reaching the final.
“We would like to finish the series in the sixth game, although we know that we have not been playing well in Poprad for a long time. We still have a lot of work to do. Now we are even more aware of the importance of the games at the end of this series,” said Ivan Datelinka, the captain of Banska Bystrica. And Banska Bystrica made it. They won 2-0 and for the third time in a row advanced to the final.
Their opponent HK Nitra got there after more difficult road. They opened the play-offs against last year’s finalist Dukla Trencin. The whole series was one of the greatest, yet the bitterest one of this year’s play-off.
Everything came in the second game, where players of Trencin played rough and were assessed 131 penalty minutes. Nitra’s Robert Lantosi lost six teeth.
“We knew players of Trencin would go after us, but I think some of the attacks on Lantosi were really dirty. I hope he will be fine and will be able to continue with us to the next game in Trencin ,” said Samuel Bucek, young star of Nitra, who was the key player of the team in the next five games.
Although Nitra didn’t make it in the third game in Trencin, they won the fourth and tied the series at two. Samuel Bucek managed to score one goal in each game. The same player led Nitra to the third win in the series too. Only the 20-year-old Slovak talent scored both goals in the game and Nitra was just one step from the semi-finals.
“I believed in myself and secretly hoped that the coach would pick me for the penalty shot. I knew how to beat Trencin’s goalie, we studied his catching style with our goalie coach. I'm glad I used it,” said Bucek, who scored the first goal of the fifth game on a penalty shot.
In the sixth game everything went well for Nitra again and after a 2-0 win they advanced to the semi-final where Zvolen was waiting on them.
The second team after regular season really wanted to be in the final, but Nitra showed up very eager after the quarter-final series.
“It will be about mistakes from which both teams can take advantage of to score goals,” said Robert Lantosi, who knew Nitra had to start the series on an away game. “It is difficult to say whether it is an advantage to start away or not. Even these kind of games are challenging and we will try to do our best to succeed and advance to the final,” said the 23-year-old winger.
And Nitra surprised Zvolen straightaway by winning the first game 4-2. The main star of the night was Judd Blackwater, who scored a hat trick and led Nitra to win the opening game of the semi-final series.
“We knew what we could expect from Zvolen, so we prepared for it. They showed their dangerous power in the offence. Scoring three goals is always great. I was happy but I was lucky at the end. Most important thing is that we won the first game,” said Blackwater.
After that, Zvolen came back to series with the first win in the second game, but in next four semi-final games it was always Nitra who was one game ahead. Zvolen was losing the spirit and even they were going to play the deciding game at home ice, they already seemed broken.
“Game 7 will be about the mindset, but we have to make it. We will lead the puck in that game. Now we will play a simple hockey, and it will be Nitra, who will have to play hard,” said David Ruzicka, who scored the first two goals out of four for Zvolen in Game 6.
But home ice didn’t work that well for Zvolen as they lost 4-1 and Nitra advanced to the final again after two years. After the series, the talk was about Nitra playing with too many undisclosed injured players.
“We had some injuries in series with Trencin, and we were able to win it. But how many times will a person play a semi-final and a final? We tried to go in series, so whoever stepped up, left their heart on ice,” said Branislav Mezei, Nitra defenceman and former NHLer.
But team led by Czech coach Antonin Stavjana lost the most important series of the season 4-1 and won only the silver medals. One of the reasons for the unsuccessful battle for the Vladimir Dzurilla Cup were too many injuries which Nitra revealed after the series. They entered the battle for the Cup with 13 injured players.
“We feel miserable. I'm very sorry, we couldn’t make it. I tried to make the most of every game. We really wanted to win the Cup for Nitra. It's the hockey city with the best fans, they deserve it. Unfortunately, anything can be done right now, we can only try to take the positives out of it,” said Samuel Bucek, who won the Golden Skate for the MVP of the play-offs. “I'm glad I won it, but I'd rather exchange it for the Cup,” concluded Bucek, who finished the post-season with 15 points in 18 games.
Michalovce moving up
While the ten teams of Slovak extra-league were fighting for the Cup, on the bottom end of the standings a big battle occurred in the play-outs between the last teams after the regular season Zilina and the champion of the second-tier league, Michalovce.
The best-of-seven series went better for Michalovce, for the first time in the history, as they beat Zilina 4-3 to move up.
“We won the last game of the season and that’s great. I am very happy for all the guys, that they have found the strength after a tough season and were able to manage to win and promote to the Extraliga. Many thanks also to our fans who created an atmosphere almost like on home ice in Zilina. It was a great impetus for us,” said Michalovce coach Miroslav Chudy.
The club from the centre of Slovakia defeated HK Nitra in five games and won the final series 4-1. “It’s incredible. It’s been a long, hard and difficult year. Players have done an amazing job. Different guys stepped up in different times. It probably looks easy while we lost only four games in the play-offs, but it was really hard. So huge credit for my players and obviously for Nitra too. For us, it feels great,” said Dan Ceman, coach of Banska Bystrica, after the fifth game of the final series.
The native Canadian replaced Vladimir Orszagh right before the start of the season and carried on his work as good as he could. Banska Bystrica went through the whole season as the leading team while they won the regular season and continued winning in the play-offs.
In the quarter-finals they were facing a strong team from Detva, which made the play-off spot after a qualification round with Nove Zamky for the first time in their history. And they showed it on ice straightaway. The beginning of the series went very well for them and after two games the series was tied 1-1. But after that, Banska Bystrica showed their power. They won the next three games and advanced to the semi-final round where they faced HK Poprad.
For Banska Bystrica it was a difficult team because they had lost four out of five games in the regular season against them. And whole series just reaffirmed it again. After four games it was tied 2-, but Banska Bystrica got a very important win on home ice and the defending champion was one game away from reaching the final.
“We would like to finish the series in the sixth game, although we know that we have not been playing well in Poprad for a long time. We still have a lot of work to do. Now we are even more aware of the importance of the games at the end of this series,” said Ivan Datelinka, the captain of Banska Bystrica. And Banska Bystrica made it. They won 2-0 and for the third time in a row advanced to the final.
Their opponent HK Nitra got there after more difficult road. They opened the play-offs against last year’s finalist Dukla Trencin. The whole series was one of the greatest, yet the bitterest one of this year’s play-off.
Everything came in the second game, where players of Trencin played rough and were assessed 131 penalty minutes. Nitra’s Robert Lantosi lost six teeth.
“We knew players of Trencin would go after us, but I think some of the attacks on Lantosi were really dirty. I hope he will be fine and will be able to continue with us to the next game in Trencin ,” said Samuel Bucek, young star of Nitra, who was the key player of the team in the next five games.
Although Nitra didn’t make it in the third game in Trencin, they won the fourth and tied the series at two. Samuel Bucek managed to score one goal in each game. The same player led Nitra to the third win in the series too. Only the 20-year-old Slovak talent scored both goals in the game and Nitra was just one step from the semi-finals.
“I believed in myself and secretly hoped that the coach would pick me for the penalty shot. I knew how to beat Trencin’s goalie, we studied his catching style with our goalie coach. I'm glad I used it,” said Bucek, who scored the first goal of the fifth game on a penalty shot.
In the sixth game everything went well for Nitra again and after a 2-0 win they advanced to the semi-final where Zvolen was waiting on them.
The second team after regular season really wanted to be in the final, but Nitra showed up very eager after the quarter-final series.
“It will be about mistakes from which both teams can take advantage of to score goals,” said Robert Lantosi, who knew Nitra had to start the series on an away game. “It is difficult to say whether it is an advantage to start away or not. Even these kind of games are challenging and we will try to do our best to succeed and advance to the final,” said the 23-year-old winger.
And Nitra surprised Zvolen straightaway by winning the first game 4-2. The main star of the night was Judd Blackwater, who scored a hat trick and led Nitra to win the opening game of the semi-final series.
“We knew what we could expect from Zvolen, so we prepared for it. They showed their dangerous power in the offence. Scoring three goals is always great. I was happy but I was lucky at the end. Most important thing is that we won the first game,” said Blackwater.
After that, Zvolen came back to series with the first win in the second game, but in next four semi-final games it was always Nitra who was one game ahead. Zvolen was losing the spirit and even they were going to play the deciding game at home ice, they already seemed broken.
“Game 7 will be about the mindset, but we have to make it. We will lead the puck in that game. Now we will play a simple hockey, and it will be Nitra, who will have to play hard,” said David Ruzicka, who scored the first two goals out of four for Zvolen in Game 6.
But home ice didn’t work that well for Zvolen as they lost 4-1 and Nitra advanced to the final again after two years. After the series, the talk was about Nitra playing with too many undisclosed injured players.
“We had some injuries in series with Trencin, and we were able to win it. But how many times will a person play a semi-final and a final? We tried to go in series, so whoever stepped up, left their heart on ice,” said Branislav Mezei, Nitra defenceman and former NHLer.
But team led by Czech coach Antonin Stavjana lost the most important series of the season 4-1 and won only the silver medals. One of the reasons for the unsuccessful battle for the Vladimir Dzurilla Cup were too many injuries which Nitra revealed after the series. They entered the battle for the Cup with 13 injured players.
“We feel miserable. I'm very sorry, we couldn’t make it. I tried to make the most of every game. We really wanted to win the Cup for Nitra. It's the hockey city with the best fans, they deserve it. Unfortunately, anything can be done right now, we can only try to take the positives out of it,” said Samuel Bucek, who won the Golden Skate for the MVP of the play-offs. “I'm glad I won it, but I'd rather exchange it for the Cup,” concluded Bucek, who finished the post-season with 15 points in 18 games.
Michalovce moving up
While the ten teams of Slovak extra-league were fighting for the Cup, on the bottom end of the standings a big battle occurred in the play-outs between the last teams after the regular season Zilina and the champion of the second-tier league, Michalovce.
The best-of-seven series went better for Michalovce, for the first time in the history, as they beat Zilina 4-3 to move up.
“We won the last game of the season and that’s great. I am very happy for all the guys, that they have found the strength after a tough season and were able to manage to win and promote to the Extraliga. Many thanks also to our fans who created an atmosphere almost like on home ice in Zilina. It was a great impetus for us,” said Michalovce coach Miroslav Chudy.