Sparta hockey players advanced to the semi-finals of the Champions League. After a close defeat at home to Växjö (1:2), the Praguers won the rematch on the opponent’s ice 6:4 in overtime. Coach Pavel Gross’s men succeeded despite losing 0:2, 1:3 and 3:4 at the beginning of the 58th minute. Jani Lajunen (34) scored the second goal of the match at 61:57.
In the semi-final, which Sparta will play for the second time in its history, the Praguers will face another opponent from Sweden. They will challenge Färjestad, who, despite a 1-3 defeat in the first match, went over Salzburg after a 6-0 result. The star of the team is David Tomášek, who left Sparta after the 2022/23 season for Färjestad. The semi-final series will again be played for two games, and the last Czech representative will play it in front of their spectators.
The Spartans went to the north of Europe, full of determination to make up for the failure on home ice. But Stjernborg’s enthusiasm cooled after two minutes and 48 seconds, when goalkeeper Kovář sent a puck into the open goal after Blichfeld’s finish.
Prague could have equalized soon thanks to a power play, but it remained unused. The same happened to Hyka, who was caught by Aahman. Even the Swedish team did not succeed in the numerical advantage, in the 13th minute Robert rang the bell on the goal structure. In the 17th minute, the scorer of the winning goal from Prague, Rosén, had already surpassed Kováře, and the visitors’ promotion hopes were fading away. Forman could answer, but goalkeeper Ahman was against it.
At the start of the second period, even Řepík failed to make a big chance. The next goal came only after a series of dismissals on both sides in the closing 35th minute. Lajunen took the puck away from an erring Rosén during his own weakening, went on a breakaway and finished down the ice. The Lakers were quick to respond. The Spartans made a bad substitution and Agren punished them for it.
At the start of the third part, Prague had a three-goal deficit in the first match, but they did not give up. At 42:10, Horák revived their hopes with a successful run, exactly one minute later, Krejčík leveled the score of today’s battle at 3:3 with the luck of Krejčík, after Ahman shot the puck over himself after his attempt and after landing behind him, it reached the goal line .
“We had nothing left to lose. We wanted to try to score a goal and get back into the game. And then it snowballed. We didn’t play very well in the first period, the opponent outplayed us, but we learned our lessons and continued to improve during the rest of the match.” Lajunen said in an interview with journalists.
The home team calmed down in stoppage time, and when Persson sent a hidden wrist shot with less than five minutes to go and Kovář flicked the catcher into the void, it seemed to be decided. At the time 57:24, Sparta reached for a timeout, the Prague team returned to the game without Kovář, and Moravčík soon made it 4:4.
Kovář soon went on the substitution again, the Lakers were close to confirming the progress, but their throw ended just wide of the stick on the bottom arch of the goal. On the other side, Řepík arranged the continuation of the drama when he promptly redirected Krejčík’s offer 64 seconds before the siren. In extra time, Sparta was held by Kovář, then Forman found Lajunen with a great backhand pass and Prague could celebrate their progress.
“It was up and down a few times today. They scored early but then we started to take our chances as well. It was great how nobody gave up and everyone kept fighting. We turned it over to our side and the result is this win,” praised Lajunen.
More matches
In mid-January, they can look forward to a confrontation with Färjestad, whose team productivity is clearly led by Tomášek, the current scoring leader and the best scorer in the Swedish league. This year’s world champion from Prague scored once against Salzburg today and assisted on another goal.
The second semi-final pair consists of Servette Geneva and Zurich, which with Šimon Hrubec between the sticks turned against Eisbären Berlin, just like in the first game, the score was 0:3. After a 4:3 win over Germany, he won 5:4 today.
