The Czech Extraliga 2003/04

[Wide Asleep]

So what's new in the playoffs here? Quite a bit. Three of the four series have gone to the final game. The only series not to do so was the Sparta - Vitkovice series which Sparta won tonight in Vitkovice. After the first two games, the series moved to Vitkovice where they won both games easily:

VIT SPA 5:0
VIT SPA 6:2

Sparta ran into a brick wall and for over 100 minutes could not score. Vitkovice played much better and tied the series up at 2 apiece.

SPA VIT 6:1

Sparta came through on home ice to win, though for the first two periods it was close with Sparta defending a slim 1:0 lead. Then there was a flurry of goals which gave them a solid lead.

VIT SPA 1:4

This game was marred by some poor sportsmanship at the end of the third period with a few pointless fouls and not exactly polite behaviour from the fans. The important thing is that Sparta won and has a bit of exra time before the next round begins.

The oher game I was following was the Plzen Pardubice game, which is even more dramatic. Here are the results of the 5th and 6th games:

PCE PLZ 5:2
PLZ PCE 3:1

So throughout the series, which will be concluded tomorrow, the home team always won. Yesterday it was really a battle since Plzen was only down to 3 defenders, so they had to take someone off offence. If her strength holds up, they could still upset Pardubice yet! It would be the first time the team leading after the regular season.

Here are the other series:
ZLN TRI 8:3
TRI ZLN 1:0 penalty shots.

It is the second time this serious was decided on penalty shots.

SLA ZNO 2:3 p.
SLA ZNO 3:0
ZNO SLA 5:2
SLA ZNO 5:0

Last year's champs are not playing so well. But they forced a seventh game so it can still go either way...

Tomorrow there will be two more semifinalists and the final one will be decided on Sunday, so stay tuned...

[Wide Asleep]

Tonight two more semifinalists made the list. Zlin won their game at home 2:0 but the big upset took place in Pardubice where the home team lost to Plzen 1:5! This is the first time in Czech Extraliga history that the team that won the regular season lost in the quarter-finals, though it did happen in the earlier Czechoslovak federal league. And Plzen really made it happen by putting their hearts into it. Not long ago they were 13th out of 14 teams, they made the playoffs by clinching 8th place in the last game of the season, and they actually beat the richest team in the league.

As far as Pardubice is concerned, they have been cursed in the last three seasons, though they have always placed high in the regular season. Whenever it got to the seventh game, they lost it. Last year it was the final against Slavia with the same goalie in net that shut them down tonight: Roman Malek.

So now we know that Zlin will be playing Plzen in the semi-finals and Sparta will be playing the winner of tomorrow's game seven matchup between Znojmo and Slavia. I would kind of like to see them play Znojmo, because their technical style suits Sparta more. Slavia is very tough and play hard, plus they get very motivated against Sparta, their biggest rivals. The advantage of course is that they would only have to travel across town to play them...

[Wide Asleep]

The media is calling it the most exciting quarterfinals in Czech Extraliga history. The final game, played yesterday, was decided in penalty shots. And Slavia won, 3:2 to advance to play Sparta inthe semi-finals for the third straight year. 2 years ago Sparta won and went on to win the finals, last year Slavia beat Sparta and beat Pardubice in the 7th game to win the championships. So will it be true this year as well that the team that wins the derby will win the cup as well?

Stay tuned!

[Wide Asleep]

BTW here is a roadmap of the semi finals:

Zlin vs. Plzen:

March 17th/18th Zlin at home against Plzen
March 21st/22nd Plzen at home against Zlin

and if necessary:

March 24th Zlin at home against Plzen
March 26th Plzen at home against Zlin
March 28th Zlin at home against Plzen

Sparta vs. Slavia

March 17th/18th Sparta at home against Slavia
March 21st/22nd Slavia at home against Sparta

and if necessary:

March 24th Sparta at home against Slavia
March 26th Slavia at home against Sparta
March 28th Sparta at home against Slavia

[mlaa]

Where is Jiri Dolezal nowadays? Is he playing anymore?

[Wide Asleep]

After leaving Finland, Doležal went to Nuremburg and ended his professional career at the end of the 1999/2000 season after a few seasons in Slavia, and now I have no idea where he is now!

Excited about the game tonight. I won't be able to go tomorrow since my nephew is having a birthday, but it is on TV and he will just have to watch too!

[Wide Asleep]

One thing I forgot to mention is that Doležal, before heading to Finland, played for Sparta and won a title with them at the beginning of the nineties. Petr Bøiza, the old/new goalie of Sparta was on the team then too.

[Wide Asleep]

So here are the latest updates from the Czech semifinals. Two games have been played in Zlin and at Sparta's stadium.

Zlin vs. Plzen:
Zlin came out of the gates with their guns flaring, and chased Malek out of his net. Actually Plzen scored first, but they didn't hold on. Final score 7:2.

The second game was much closer, heading into overtime. Zlin was the luckier team, and won 3:2.

Sparta vs. Slavia
I was at game one, and even though Sparta scored only 23 seconds into the game, Slavia managed to come back quickly and get the momentum on their side. The game was close, it was 1:1 until the 3rd period, but then Slavia scored three times to win 1:4.

Slavia scored first in game 2, and fell back into defence. Sparta exploded, firing shot after shot at the Slavia goalie, but weren't able to score until the 53rd minute when 18-year-old Sindler socred on the third rebound to tie the game up. The game went into overtime and this time Sparta was luckier, capitalising on an error by Slavia to score. Final score 2:1.

[Wide Asleep]

Games three and four of the semifinals were on tap on Sunday and Monday as were games three and four of the relegation round.

Lets start with the relegation round. Ceske Budejovice lost the first two games on home ice and were looking to win two in Jihlava to tie things up. But it was not to be. In game three they took it all the way to penalty shots only to be denied, and today they lost 3:0 and face the sad fact that they will be starting next season in the 1st league. It is the third year in a row that the Extraliga team has fallen to the 1st league. So who is the newcomer to the Extraliga next year? Well hardly a newcomer. They are actually the winningest team in Czech hockey history with 12 titles to their credit, the last coming in 1991. Founded in 1956, Dukla Jihlava was the Czech Army team, and hated appropriately for that. Since all Czech boys had to go to the army, the best hockey players, like Hasek, were sent to Jihlava to play. Jihlava was relegated to the first league in 1999, losing to Znojmo 3 games to 4. The following year they lost the relagation round and their next chance came this year, this time with successful results.

Now on to the Semifinals:

Plzen was host to Zlin. Plzen had yet to lose on home ice in the playoffs, and only lost once on home ice since Malek came to play for Plzen in January. In the first game they kept their streak going beating Zlin 3:2 but it came to a crashing halt on Monday when they lost 0:3. Zlin, therefore is leading the series 3:1.

Sparta went to Slavia's Eden stadium with a clear goal: winning one of the two games. Eden, which is one metre narrower and three metres shorter, promised lots of contact, and today (the game I saw on TV) bore that out.

In the first game Sparta got first blood with Chabada scoring at 11:09. Slavia countered at the beginning of the second period, and that was that until the end of regulation time. A ten minute overtime was also without any goals, so the match came down to penalty shots. Slavia started and at the bottom of the fifth round they scored to take a 2:1 lead. Victor Ujcik, once a Slavia icon, handled the pressure, scored and sent the series into single rounds. Petr Ton scored for Sparta, Slavia's Josef Beranek did not score on Briza, and Sparta won. It was the first time Slavia in history lost on penalty shots!

This evenings game was even a bigger shocker. This time Slavia scored first but Sparta tied it up only 1:30 later. Slavia ended the first period, however, with comfortable 3:1 lead and settled back into a more defensive mode. This kept the game scoreless for all of the second period and until 4:29 into the third when Dragoun scored his first extraliga playoff goal, bringing the score to 3:2. Sparta intensified their attack, but was not successful. At the end of the third they had pulled Briza and were stopped with six seconds to go by Franek, Slavia's goalie. The faceoff was held in front of Slavia's net and Slavia's Josef Beranek won the faceoff and passed it back. Ujcik fought to get the puck, passed it to Marek who passed it to Bartecko who shot, only to be deflected by Franek. Chabada was ready, though and pushed the puck into the net. The time: 59:59!!!! And overtime for the third game in a row. Once again no goals were scored and the game was decided on penalty shots. Petr Ton, who scored twice on penalty shots the day before, was up first and did not disappoint. Slavia's Klepis tied it up but in the fifth and final round wee Reznicek scored beautifully to give Sparta a 3:1 lead in the series, though only one second separated it from being 2:2!

Sparta and Zlin are at home on Wednesday...

[Wide Asleep]

I had a long reply in here yesterdy and when I sent it I was not logged in and I lost the information.

Ach jo. No matter.

On Wednesday both Zlin and Sparta could have taken their respective series on their home ice, both leading 3:1.

Zlin finally ended Plzen's (and Roman Malek's) interesting season by winning 4:2 (4:1 for the series). Malek stopped bout 50 shots but it was not enough. Still Plzen celebrated as their season was not a disappointment in the least, ending up fourth though they were in the 13th spot in January. Zlin can now sit back and watch the Prague S series.

In Sparta's T-mobile arena the guests came out with fire in their eyes. They may be down 3:1, but they have not yet lost a game in the first 60 minutes. Nor did they today. They opened the scoring at 6:08 and the score stood at 0:1 until Bartecko slipped the puck in the upper corner of the net at 35:08. I was hay he scored because he was hit pretty bad a bit earlier in the game, and I thought he would not return. He was elbowed in the back, pushing him down and then rammed head first into the boards. He fell on his butt and then collapsed like a rag doll and had to be helped off the ice. The penalty? Nothing. In fact the refs were so bad that both teams felt the refs had in some way done injure to their team. Jan Marek was fouled on a breakaway and was given a 10 minute personal penalty for diving. The truth is that he did "emphasize" his fall, but he was fouled.

The game remained tied until 46:26 when Antos gave Slavia the lead again and Sup widened it at 52:09. With a little over three minutes to go, with both teams down to four players on the ice, Slavia fouled (which upset the Slavia bench). Sparta pulled Briza and at 57:07 Simicek, Sparta's captain, scored: 2:3. Simicek raised his hand in celebration and was cross-checked, crashing into the net and had to be helped off the ice. He did not return to the game. The penalty? Nothing.

History repeated itself and once again Sparta tied up the game in the last minutes of the game. Petr Ton's goal at 58:09 gave Sparta hope of turning the game around, and when Martin Chabada hit the post with three seconds left in the game, Slavia was visably shaken.

However, they shrugged it off during the break and were the better team on the ice once again during the overtime. Antos once again scored 100 seconds into the game, ending the 5th game (the fourth in overtime) and narrowing the gap to 3:2.

[DanCan]

While W.A. is licking his wounds, I'll better update this thread.

Slavia Prague defeated local rival Sparta 3-0 in game 7 of the semi-final on Sunday, March 28 and will now play HC Zlin in the best-of-seven final series, which start in Zlin on Wednesday, March 31. Slavia is planning to play their home games at the brand new Sazka Arena, which will host the 2004 IIHF World Championship.
HC Pardubice, which won the regular season by 15 points, was ousted in seven games by 8th ranked Plzen in the quarterfinal. Plzen then lost the best-of-seven semi-final against 2nd ranked HC Zlin 4-1.

[Wide Asleep]

Thanks for filling in DanCan. I needed a few days break from hocley to get my head together after Sparta's upsetting loss to Slavia. If we had scored tha darn goal at the end of game 5 we would be in the finals. Instead...

Well, I already told about game 5, what about the rest of the series? Slavia scored first but Sparta answered with two quick goals. They held their 2:1 lead until the third period when some badly-imed penalties gave Slavia 2 quick goals. The added a fourth almost immediately and coasted to their 3rd win to tie the series.

In game 7 in Sparta's arena, Sparta got off on the wrong "foot" as a wild shot heading into the boards hit the skate of Michal Bros and into Sparta's goal. This visibly shook Sparta and when Slavia scored their second goal (this time by one of their own players) Sparta definintely ran out of steam. The final goal wa just icing on the cake. I stayed around to cheer for the disappointed Sparta players.

The truth is that Slavia played better, or at least they played that kind of hockey they needed to beat Sparta. It is telling that Sparta was not once in 7 games ahead at the end of 60 minutes.

[Wide Asleep]

Some new Czech league - and World Championship - news...

The Czech finals are in full swing with Prague's Slavia taking on Moravia's Zlin.

I didn't see the first two games, played in Zlin, so just the scores:

game 1: Zlin / Slavia - 2:3 in overtime
game 2: Zlin / Slavia - 3:2 in overtime

meaning the series came to Prague tied. Some other news overshadowed these two games, however: Slavia decided to play the games in their new hall: Sazka Arena, the brand new hall built for the World Championships.

On one hand I can understand why: Slavia will be playing the entire season there starting next year. They can sell more tickets (I think it has a capacity of 18000 instead of Eden's 4500), it is a good trial of the new arena, it is a good marketing move...

But there are several downsides too: Slavia's home-ice advantage in Eden was increased by the size of their rink: it was one of the smallest in the league, favouring their hard-hitting style. The new arena's rink is now one of the largest. It is a brand-new environment for everyone, home and visiting teams.

And one thing which I think is a big failure: tickets. The tickets went on sale on Friday morning at 5 am. At 5:09 all of the 7000 tickets put into circulation for the fans (the other 11000 were given to sponsors, players, Sazka staff, etc) were sold out for last night's game and we were damn lucky to get the cheapest seats for tonight's game. Instead of having to make the trek out to Eden to buy the tickets, those who were interested in going to the game could go to any Sazka ticket outlet (Sazka means bet, and it is a betting and lottery organization) in the entire country, and there are thousands of them! So a lot of people bought tickets like they would buy tickets to a museum: they just wanted to see what the new arena is like. Slavia's Michal Sup said that he hoped those who came for the tour would at least know the basic rules of hockey. Here are some of the results of this:
1) Apparently lots of Sazka terminal operators printed tickets for scalpers, or scalped them themsleves. Last night 100 crown tickets were going for 700 crowns, or up to 2000 crowns for Zlin fans.
2) Many hardcore Slavia fans were not able to get tickets and will have to watch the game on television. Thic really caused a lot of bad blood between a lot of fans who have been supporting the team for years, way back into the dark ages where they were in the 1st league with 400 people coming to the games, and the management of the team embodied in the coach, Vladimir Ruzicka.
3) During Sunday's game more people were cheering for Zlin than for the "home" team.


And maybe that is why Slavia lost the first game ever in Sazka Arena. Going into this game it seemed that no two teams could be better matched. All four regular season games and the first two finals all went into overtime. Not so here, though the result was close. The hockey was boring. Nobody wanted to make a mistake and everyone was getting used to a new ice surface. The first two period were scoreless. The first goal waited until the third period when 41-year-old veteran Rostislav Vlach became the first to score an extraliga goal in the new arena. Slavia quickly tied the game, but Zlin managed to score before the siren to win the game.

So I will be going tonight for my own tour of the stadium and will be weaing Zlin's green colours, like a lot of the other fans there! Then I will let you know about more than just the results of the game, but a first-hand account of Sazka Arena, which is rumoured to be the best and most modern hockey arena in all of Europe!

[Mrs. Sykora]

Thats' really sad, that Sparta lost.

WideAsleep, do you visit all their games ?

[Wide Asleep]

Mrs. Sykora: I try my hardest. We have 52 games in the season, so that makes 26 home games. I always miss a few due to vacations or work so I don't see them all, but the vast majority of them. The seasons ticket is a bargain at 3000 Czech crowns (about 100 USD), including the playoffs.

So yesterday's game was about as boring as they come. We were in the "nosebleed" section just three rows down from the top but still had a pretty good view. As to the game, Zlin won by one goal again, and this time shut out the strong Slavia offense. The first goal came in the third period again and was followed by a shower of shots by Slavia, but no goal came. The game ended 0:1 and Zlin is now leading the series 3:1 with a home game tomorrow. But Slavia was in the same position with Sparta after winning the first game and losing three in a row, including two on their "home" ice.

And what about the arena? It is really beautiful. There are still a few things that they haven't completed, but I think that it would stand up to the competition in the NHL after all the bugs are worked out. The seats are more comfortable than the benches, the beer can be poured in six seconds (and that is an important thing in this country), the acoustics are phenomenal (we heard the puck hitting the posts from up in the rafters). For things like the World Championships it is really a fine stadium, but I am not sure it is ideal for the Extraliga and their attendances of 4-5000. Even if they all cheered, it would not be as intense as a crowd filling good old Eden (which kind of reminded me of Regina's Agridome, though without the stale smell of farm animals).

We are trying to get tickets for the final friendly match between Canada and the Czech Repubic a couple of days before the championships start, otherwise we have great tickets for the Worlds (9 rows up from the ice).

Well, tomorrow could be the last game of the season, or will Slavia pull a Rabbit out of their hat once again???