Game no. 7 has to decide the second finalist in Czech Extraliga

30 Mar 2011 | Petr Polák

Although HC Slavia Prague was leading 3-1 in the semi final series against the President trophy winner HC Oceláři Třinec, the series is tied now and the seventh games has to decide which team will be advancing into the league finals from the best-of-seven series.

Game Five (Mon, Mar 28):
Třinec – Slavia P. 6:1 (1:0, 4:1, 1:1)
Using of power play was the key factor on the road for Třinec‘s distraction of set point number one of Slavia Prague. Třinec was playing power play for more than six minutes in a row during the second period. And scored four times, two goals from it fell into the Slavia’s net in two-man power play.

Martin Růžička scored a clean hat trick in the game: He opened the scoring with the only goal of play in the first period and added another three goals in the long Třinec power play.

The goalie of Třinec’s Steelers Hamerlík missed out on the shutout three minutes before the last horn – Also Slavia used its power play, but in the 57th minute was too late to think about bigger score correction.

Game Six (Wed, Mar 30):
Slavia P. – Třinec 3:5 (2:1, 1:3, 0:1)
Slavia got a big chance to end the series in the game number six. Only 78 seconds was gone from the first period and the home team was in lead: Kolařík shot into the left-top corner of the net. But after three minutes the score was tied again. Hrňa took a pass from Peterek and scored between Kopřiva’s legs.

A big trouble for Třinec came in the next minutes with its exuberance: One of the couple of two-man power plays of the Praguers ended with a Svoboda goal. The hero of the quarter final series between Slavia and Liberec Tomáš Svoboda scored also the third goal of his team in the second period.

The problem of Slavia was that its players weren’t able to keep the two-goals lead for longer time – less than two minutes passed from the Svoboda’s second goal and the score was 3-2. Třinec woke up after this goal, and tackled perfectly the end of the period: Hrabal tied the score during 4-on-3 powerplay in the 38th minute and few whiles later Martin Růžička turned over the score in the 39th minute.

The last goal fell during the last minute into the empty net before a big 1-on-1 fight between Vašíček (Slavia) and Varaďa (Třinec). Vašíček had a good start into the fight, but when Varaďa released his arms from the jersey the end of a fight was coming: Varaďa hits him three times and Vašíček went down on his knees.

The series will be ended in the game number seven in Třinec, on Friday, Apr 1. The game is already sold-out and a loudly atmosphere is awaited by home club.