One step to the league finals remains to Slavia

It’s a really amazing performance of Slavia, when you’re thinking about the system of Czech Extraliga playoffs: The preliminary round is played in the best-of-five games system, quarter finals, semi finals and finals in best-of-seven.
It means that while Třinec had thirteen days off between the last regular season’s round and the first quarterfinals game, HC Slavia Prague as the participant of preliminary round played five games and what’s more, Třinec had to play one game less than Slavia in the quarterfinals.
But even Třinecians have played a half portion of games before the semifinals, Slavia is tireless and won three games in a row now.

Game one (Mon, Mar 21):
Třinec – Slavia P.    5:3 (2:0, 2:0, 1:3)
The first game of the semi final series looked like easy business for Třinec. Until the end of the second period, needs to be said. Slavia didn’t realize how an offensive zone looks like in Werk Aréna until the 15th minute of play. Třinec’s pressure was devastating, Steelers wanted to destroy Slavia by as many quick goals as was possible.
The players of the club from the East end of Czech republic were really successful. During the first forty minutes Radek Bonk, Lukáš Krajíček, Petr Adamský and Martin Růžička scored into Slavia’s net.
But a turnover occurred in the third period and instead of another Třinec goal, three Slavia hits came and Třinec had to start worrying about a possible equalizing of the score, especially during the 56th minute when Bonk was penalized after a needless foul. Slavia not only didn’t use this power play, but its forward Krenželok also was penalized and make the Slavia power play shorter.
Třinec scored the fifth goal in the shortened power play and closed the score later by the fifth goal, but Slavia showed up its strength. "We got a slap, it will be really cruel series," Třinec’s captain Jan Peterek said after game one.
Interesting point of this game is the breaking of the old Viktor Ujčík league record. Ujčík was the player who scored goals in the most games in a row until the first game of this series – he scored in nine games in a row. The new record was set by Martin Růžička with a ten games long goal streak.

Game two (Tue, Mar 22):
Třinec – Slavia P.    2:3 SO (0:1, 1:0, 1:1 – 0:0)
If Peterek was talking about a slap from Slavia, another one came after just after 44 seconds of the second game one day later. Vondrka got a breakaway that made better by a nice pass on Pospíšil and the score was 0:1.
It was really a different Slavia than on Monday. This team was perfectly defending, active, and hardly skating. A big pity for the away team was that Svoboda wasn’t able to score from a penalty shot.
Třinec was hardly recovering after big a Slavia onset into the game. "They were more vigorous all the first period," Třinec defender Krajíček admitted.
The first answer on a good start of Slavia came in the start of the second: Třinec tied the game after 30 seconds of the period which was 14 seconds faster scoring than Slavia proved in the first.
After then Třinec come into the pressure what was caused by two away players’ penalties, but another goal didn’t come before the 49th minute, when Doležal scored a goal from an occasional offensive action of Slavia. It looked like Slavia would pick the first victory, but 25 seconds before the horn Hrabal equalized the score during the play with an empty net.
The 10-minutes long overtime didn’t show a golden goal, so the shootouts had to come. The first five players didn’t score, the game was ended by Pospíšil’s goal in the end of the third shootout series and the Praguers could start to celebrate.

Game three (Fri, Mar 26)
Slavia P. – Třinec    4:3 OT (1:0, 1:2, 1:1 – 1:0)
Game number three was tied after 60 minutes of play as well as the previous was. This time, Slavia took the lead after eight minutes, and later reacted three minutes after Třinec’s turning over the score by goals in the 33rd and 36th minute.
The third period brought two goals: Růžička sent away the team into the lead in the 52nd minute but during the 55th Tomica determined that the game will come into the overtime.
The spectators didn’t even get to see two minutes in overtime, because Roth scored a golden goal after a weld ahead of Hamerlík’s net. All the twelve thousands Slavia fans exploded in a big joy.

Game four (Sat, Mar 27)
Slavia P. – Třinec    4:0 (1:0, 1:0, 2:0)
The most clear-cut was the fourth game of the series. Slavia scored one goal in each period of the game and in the last minute added another one. From this it is perfectly clear, that Třinec’s tactical move of switching the goalies before the game number four had no effect.
The Silesians were consternated in the 50th minute while the score was 2:0. Varaďa shot the puck into the net while the back of the net side was drawn-up in the air, but both posts were still fixated in the ice and the pegs weren’t dislocated. Referee Hradil went to the bench and consulted this situation with a colleague ahead of video and rejected this goal as invalid.
"In NHL this kind of goals are always submitted," Třinec coach Kopřiva said, "I cannot comment this decision, but I think that an objective spectator can make his own opinion."
Vain glory, Slavia even so was the better team on the ice, didn’t admit many goal chances to Třinec and brought the game into the third victory in the series with the first shutout in this season’s playoffs for Kopřiva.
Slavia has a set ball now as well as Vítkovice has reached in the game number five. Vítkovice will have its chance for the series ending on Sunday’s evening, Slavia one day later.

 

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