Ústí nad Labem wins the regular season of Czech 1.liga

08 Feb 2011 | Petr Polák

Yesterday’s last round of Czech 1.liga offered some drama. Before it started, only two teams – Beroun and Písek – could be sure that they wouldn’t move across the league standings. One free spot for the play-off preliminary round was still free and the winner of this season’s regular part was unknown.

Although KLH Chomutov will play one more postponed game (vs. Olomouc), it stands clear after yesterday’s combination of Chomutov’s and Ústí’s results that the winner of the long-term part of the season will be the team of Ústí nad Labem.

Because the difference between both teams was just five points, Chomutov could jump past Ústí’s Lions in the case of two three-point wins, but Chomutov’s players have cancelled this possibility themselves with just a 2-points win in overtime in the game against Havlíčkův Brod (3-2 OT).

Ústí nad Labem also reached two points in the game against Beroun (3-2 SO), but the difference between the teams is still five points. Chomutov’s last game can't change anything with the three-points-win system: HC Slovan Ústečtí Lvi will win the regular season of the Czech 1.liga for the third time in a row!

After Ústí-Chomutov there was a 9-points large space, and that is why the silver spot wasn’t in danger of Jihlava’s strike. But even Jihlava had to defend its bronze medal against Olomouc in the forthright game. Jihlava didn’t flap and won 4-2.

Ústí n. Labem, Chomutov, Dukla Jihlava and HC Olomouc will take a rest now until the play-off preliminary round will come to its end. After that they will meet their challengers for the quarterfinals.

The following teams, Havlíčkův Brod, Znojmo and Hradec Králové had assurance for the play-off qualification round, but they couldn’t be certain for which spot before yesterday. Finally, after their last games they have concluded the regular season in the order written above.

A hockey fan can be confused when looking at the 1.liga final table, wondering why the group of the 9th-14th teams is located under Beroun, when they reached a greater amount of points than Berounští Medvědi. The reason is that 1.liga was divided into Group A and Group B after 30 games were played. At that time the Beroun team was better than the others and had qualified into Group A for the shell-part of the regular season, and although later its players lost 12 from the 14 appended games, Beroun finished the regular season in the 8th spot (last spot of Group A).

Vrchlabí, Třebíč, Benátky nad Jizerou and Kadaň will also face a playoff qualification round. The last team with chance for this season’s play-offs was Litoměřice, but they won their game with Vrchalbí only in overtime (3-4) and because of Kadaň´s huge win against Chrudim (5-1) in its home arena, Litoměřice’s season came to the end.

Vrchlabí will start the play-off´s preliminary round in the best place from the Group B and will challenge Beroun. Because of it's bilateral position with Vrchlabí results, Třebíč ended the regular season in the worst place and will meet Hradec Králové. Benátky nad Jizerou will play Orli Znojmo, and SK Kadaň teams against Havlíčkův Brod. The qualification round will be played for three wins, the teams from Group A will have advantage of one more home game. The preliminary series will start on Wednesday, Feb 9th, and ends on Feb 15th at the latest.

As written, Litoměřice lost its fight for the last play-off spot yesterday and their season ends, together with Tábor’s, but HC Tábor's situation was different. The South-Bohemian team had to defeat its place in the last round ahead of Chrudim, but they lost in Třebíč (5-3). Fortunately for the Třebíč club and fans, Chrudim also stumbled in Kadaň (5-1) and Chrudim is granted one of two places in the play-down phase of 1.liga. The second play-down team will be Písek, by far the least successful team of this year’s 1.liga.

Písek and Chrudim will challenge the best three teams of the CZE 2.liga for two tickets to the next season’s 1.liga in the relegation round.

GROUP: A

#	Club	G	W	W-OT	D	L-OT	L	Score	P
1	HC Slovan Ustecti Lvi	44	23	9	0	5	7	160:94	92
2	KLH Chomutov	43	23	5	0	8	7	148:111	87
3	HC Dukla Jihlava	44	22	5	0	3	14	129:100	79
4	HC Olomouc	43	20	5	0	5	13	120:100	75

5	HC Rebel Havlickuv Brod	44	18	3	0	7	16	155:147	67
6	Orli Znojmo	44	17	6	0	3	18	124:142	66
7	HC VCES Hradec Kralove	44	17	4	0	5	18	130:150	64
8	HC Berounsti Medvedi	44	14	5	0	5	20	96:121	57
Group formed by teams 1-8 after 30 rounds of regular season. Each team plays a total of 44 games. Top four teams from this group advance straight into quarterfinals, bottom four teams enter the play-off qualification phase.

GROUP: B

#	Club	G	W	W-OT	D	L-OT	L	Score	P
1	HC Vrchlabi	44	16	4	0	8	16	111:119	64
2	SK Horacka Slavia Trebic	44	16	5	0	6	17	123:123	64
3	HC Benatky nad Jizerou	44	15	5	0	7	17	121:124	62
4	SK Kadan	44	17	3	0	3	21	127:113	60

5	HC Stadion Litomerice	44	12	9	0	5	18	114:136	59
6	HC Tabor	44	12	7	0	6	19	108:134	56

7	HC Chrudim	44	13	5	0	6	20	121:143	55
8	IHC KOMTERM Pisek	44	12	4	0	2	26	94:124	46
Group formed by teams 9-16 after 30 rounds of regular season. Each team plays a total of 44 games. Top four teams from this group advance to the play-off qualification. Bottom two teams face three winners of 2. liga in Relegation round.