Fifteen games have been played in the last three game days in Tipos Extraleague which means that there’s been plenty of scoring chances. One nine-goal and two ten-goal games have been accompanied with games between the rival teams, loses of the favorites and a surprise from the last place of the rankings.

 

WOW

The three-goal scoring Nordic players.

The season has been going well for two players from the Nordic region - Swede Carl Ackered and Finn Antti Erkinjuntti. Carl Ackered, Dukla Trenčín’s defenseman, has been slowly getting more productive in the previous week, first he helped his team with an assist to defeat HC Košice 4-2 at home. His performance got better on Friday when he accumulated 1+1 and helped his team to defeat HK Nitra 7-3. Dukla Trenčín faced HC Slovan Bratislava on Sunday, and even though Ackered scored two goals it was not enough for his team to go home with 3 points that day. Carl Ackered finished his successful week with three goals and two assists. Erkinjuntti’s week consisted of one less game day than Ackered’s – starting on Friday against HC Košice. The first period was not that impressive because he was just warming up, but he showed his true colors in the second period of the game against the Steelers. HK Michalovce’s forward powered the team to a 3-2 victory by completing a hat trick in the span of 14 minutes. His team faced the favorite from Zvolen on Sunday. Erkinjuntti assisted on the first goal of the game which resulted in an overtime win for Erkinjuntti’s team. After the two games that this Finnish forward played, he has accumulated three goals and one assist.

 

Goals scored on power play.

The Knights have scored at least once every time they were on a power play in the last nine games. They scored 17 goals when they had a man advantage in this period of time and thanks to their hard work, they managed to score more goals and make it to 48 goals. This means that Dukla Trenčín has managed to convert 1/3 of their power play chances, and that’s a dream of every coach and team out there. The most successful games for them were the ones against HK Nitra and HC Detva. They tallied three power-play goals on nine chances on the 10^th of January which resulted in 8-1 win over HK Detva. Dukla Trenčín needed only four power play chances to seal the deal with HK Nitra on Friday. During this successful 9-game power-play series Dukla Trenčín won 8 games. Their road to the 9^th victory in the row ended on Sunday after suffering 4-3 loss against HC Slovan Bratislava. Needless to say, Dukla Trenčín’s power-play teams are still extremely dangerous for their opponents.

source: HK Dukla Trenčín

 

Two victories for Liptovský Mikuláš

Almost three months have passed since the start of the season and that’s how long it took the hockey team from Liptovský Mikuláš to get six points that’d boost them up in the rankings. They lost 3-1 to HC Banská Bystrica on Tuesday, but they got their chance on Friday when they faced one of the best teams in the league, HC Slovan Bratislava. The score after the first period was 2-1 for Liptovský Mikuláš, and knowing how fast things change in hockey, they knew they needed to be careful. The second period ended with the 3-2 score. With 13 minutes left in the 3^rd period Liptovský Mikuláš had a 5-2 lead and the team was looking forward to celebrating a huge win. Slovan managed to score two more goals but the important points stayed in Liptovský Mikuláš. After the unexpected win, the team had to face HC Banská Bystrica on home ice and was more than ready to give them hell. Luckily, Rudolf Huna scored the first goal of the game 28 minutes into the game and added an assist to his name later. Banská Bystrica did not want to give up just yet and with less than 4 minutes to go in the last period they scored a goal. Liptovský Mikuláš proved they have the team to win this game and in the last minute of the game they scored the game winning goal – making it 3-2. Three game days later and the team from Liptovský Mikuláš has added 6 points to their standings – and that’s something that they are not used to.

 

3-2 but make it double.

Michalovce are the only team that hasn’t lost a game this week. Foxes played only two games, but the bar was set high for them. First, they had to play against their rivals – the Steelers on Friday. The first period wasn’t anything special because both teams used the full 20 minutes to warm up, but in the end, it only worked out for one team. The second period belonged to a forward from Michalovce. Antti Erkinjuntti scored a hat trick and tried to help his team to score again. Steelers managed to score two goals but Erkinjuntti’s hat trick was enough to help his team to win 3-2 in regulation. The next scheduled game was on Sunday against the knights from Zvolen on home ice. After the first period the score looked optimistic for the Foxes – 2-0. The game ended up going into overtime because Zvolen scored a goal in each period. Two and half minutes into overtime Šoltés scored a goal and led Michalovce to a 3-2 victory. Michalovce ended their week with five points and boosted them to the 4^th place in the rankings.

 

WOE

Points this week: 0

Last week was a good example of how versatile this league is. While Michalovce were on a roll point wise Nové Zámky were the opposite of that and failed to get at least a point out of six points. The first chance that they had was against DVTK Polar Bears Miskolc on Friday. The game was tied 1-1 after the first period and it looked optimistic for both teams. Four minutes into the second period it was already 2-1 for Nové Zámky but the Polar Bears didn’t want to give up and ended up scoring twice in the span of four minutes. The final score was 2-3 for DVTK Polar Bears Miskolc, and Nové Zámky had to return back home empty handed. The last scheduled game of the week for them was on Sunday, and they faced HK Nitra. The first period was identical to the one they played on Friday, and the score after 20 minutes was 1-1. The game was peaceful, both teams played well, but Nové Zámky failed to score on a power-play which they regretted 6 minutes before the end of the game when Mezei led Nitra to a 2-1 victory over Nové Zámky. And that’s yet another week without getting any points for the hockey team from Nové Zámky.

 

3 minutes and 19 seconds = 3 goals 

Hockey players from Košice have managed to win 4-3 over HK Poprad on Sunday and break the losing streak of four games. This game of two rivals wasn’t the only game they had to play this week. Steelers hosted Michalovce on home ice on Friday which was yet another rivalry game in which Erkinjuntti’s scored a hat trick. The first warning sign happened on Tuesday in Trenčín. The Knights scored the first goal in the first minute in the second period, then added another one three minutes later and the third goal went in only 35 seconds after the second one. Even though hockey is a game in which every second matters, but the short period of time was enough for the Knights to decide how will this game end. HC Košice lost 4-2 and returned home empty handed. If they want to get higher in the standings, they need to make sure that moments like these won’t happen too often.

 

In the upcoming week we’re going to see a game from the 10^th round, which has been previously postponed, on Tuesday, and in the next two game days we’ll see 12 interesting games in total - including a game where two highest ranking teams will fight for the first spot.

 

author: Martin Lehotský, Miroslava Meličková | graphics: Kristína Prievalská