Goals and assistance: 5. Abdul (Paločko Jr.) 55. Štrauch (König, Svitana) 60. Abdul, 60. Svitana (Štrauch, König) - 32. Kafka (Miklík), 49. Šedivý (Pacan, Miklík)
Penalized players: 3:5 for (2) minutes, power plays: 0:1, defense plays: 0:0 referees: Novák, Lokšík – Krajčík, Kollár, 1,280 visitors
HK Poprad: Ivanov (Kováč) – Brejčák, König, McDowell, Petran, Fabian, Dinda, Davydov, Bdžoch – Štrauch, M. Nagy, Svitana – Paločko, Heizer, Buc – Bondra, Paločko ml., Abdul – Koky, Ježek, Hvila
HC Košice: Lundström (Habal) – Čížek, Šedivý, Kessel, Dudáš, Koch, Pulli, Vrábeľ, Matejka – Hričina, Hovorka, L. Nagy – Miklík, Pacan, Kafka – Spilar, Suja, Jenčík – Šoltés, Klíma, Petráš
The beginning of a traditional East-Slovak derby started quietly, when both teams were trying to familiarize with the opponent's tactics. So for the first chance we had to wait until the fifth minute and it immediately ended up with a goal. Abdul was the one who scored. He processed the puck from Lundström and sent it behind the powerless goalman of Košice. Five minutes later our goalman had to face another dangerous action of the home team. This time he had to deal with Paločka’s ending, but the puck then ricochets to Buc. But Lundström was paying good attention and did not allow to change the score this time. Almost two and half minutes before the end of the first period also Košice was able to score. Pacan passed the puck to Kafka, who was already standing in a big angle, but despite it they almost caught Ivanov unprepared. But there was no goal from this situation so they went to the locker rooms at 1:0 in favor of Poprad.
The Chamoix from Poprad entered the middle part of the game with four players only because of penalization of Petran. Košice tried to use this situation to equalize. In the beginning of the second period the Steelers were not successful, but in the 32nd minute Kafka presented his hard ending. In the left circle he tried to reach the puck and shot it under the upper pole of Ivan's net. It was a tie. Before the end of the second period Kafka could have scored one more time, but this time the goalman was successful. Also Miklík did not get it made. He stole the puck from home's defense and started an action. But Ivanov handily handled the shot. So after two periods the score was still 1:1.
The aim of the third period was obvious for the both teams – to score and achieve psychological advantage. It finally happened to the hockey players of Košice. In the 49th minute Šedivý processed the puck. And he was the one who decided that the Steelers would lead this match for the first time. Eight minutes before the end of the match Heizer tried to reverse the lead of Košice, but this time Lundström succeeded. Despite it the equalization came five minutes before the end of the regular time. In the final minute of the regular play time the home team started to lead after the goal of Abdul and the Steelers were not able to respond to it. On the contrary, Svitana modified the score by the shot on the empty net to the final score of 4:2.
Marcel Ozimák, Coach of Poprad: “Today's match had its batch of quality. Both teams were playing at full blast, the players were playing a good game. We thoroughly prepared ourselves for Košice and were awarded by the result. We are glad for the two goals at the end of the match.”
Roman Šimíček, Coach of Košíc: “Today our performance was not optimal. The match was even, we managed to lead after the lucky goal. But then useless fouls came, which Poprad used. An experienced team like us has to watch something like that.”
