Slavia evens series with shootout win in Třinec

After a poor showing in the first game of their Extraliga semifinal series in Třinec, Slavia Praha bounced back on Tuesday to win in a shootout and earn a split on the road.

Třinec's David Květon lays the body against Slavia. Photo:
Marian Ježowicz, hcocelari.cz.

Monday night, Oceláři jumped out to a commanding 4-0 lead after two periods, led by a goal and 2 assists from Martin Růžička. In the third, Slavia made a game of it by scoring three times in under seven minutes, before David Květon iced it with an empty netter.

On Tuesday, Slavia got a much better start, holding leads of 1-0 and 2-1 before Josef Hrabal tied the game with only 25 seconds remaining in regulation time to force overtime. After a scoreless 10-minute period, the game was decided in a shootout. Tomáš Pospíšil scored on Slavia's second attempt, meaning that Květon had to score on Třinec's third attempt to prolong the game. However, he was stopped by Miroslav Kopřiva, who made 39 saves in 70 minutes of hockey and three more in the shootout.

"If on Monday we had missed the beginning of the game, today we played pretty well," said Slavia assistant coach Jiří Čelanský after the game. "The first period we had the upper hand, unfortunately we didn't score the penalty shot. The whole game we were playing the game we want to play. Active and a lot of forechecking. We deserved to win."

The series resumes on Friday and Saturday at Prague's O2 Arena.

On Wednesday, the other semifinal series, which is also tied 1-1, between Eaton Pardubice and Vítkovice Steel resumes in Pardubice. They play game 3 at 18:10 and then game 4 at the same time on Thursday. Both games will be televised live on ČT4 Sport.