HK Dukla Trenčín - HC Košice 3:1 (1:1, 0:0, 2:0)
Goals and assists: 18. Radivojevič, 59. Varga (Sojčík, Frühauf), 60. Ölvecký (Radivojevič) - 16. Miklík (Nagy, Pacan)
Penalized players: 6:5 for two minutes, also Ölvecký (TRE, 10 minutes - attacking the referees), Deveaux (TRE - 5 + 20 minutes - kneeing), Habal (KOS - 20 minutes - unsportsmanlike conduct), power plays: 0:0, defense play: 0:0, referee Stano, Jonák - Šefčík, Synek, 3280 visitors
Dukla Trenčín: Valent – Bačík, Starosta, Cebák, Frühauf, Bohunický, Holenda, Romančík – Bezúch, Ölvecký, Radivojevič – Varga, Sádecký, Sojčík – Hecl, Dlouhý, Mikula – Hudec, Pardavý, Švec – Deveaux
HC Košice: Habal (59. Lundström) – Kessel, Ovčačík, Dudáš, Koch, Michalčin, Pulli, Vrábeľ, Klíma – Miklík, Pacan, Nagy – Spilar, Hovorka, Jenčík – Kafka, Suja, Šoltés – Hričina, Boltun, Petráš
The introductory minutes of the match belonged to the visiting Steelers, who got into a goal chance as soon as in the 1st minute. Hovorka avoided the defense men of Trenčín, but finally he wasn't able to overcome Valent. On the other side, Habal had luck when Starosta aimed the shot towards the net, and the puck bounced from the net’s construction. Radivojevič found himself in a good position for scoring as well, but experienced Habal managed to move to the right place and saved the puck. After that, Hovorka didn't succeed in his solo-breakaway, but despite that, few minutes later Košice finally enjoyed their 1st goal. It was Miklík, who tipped the puck into the uncovered Valent's net. The leadership of Košice did not take too long. It took exactly 2 minutes and 9 seconds, as Radivojevič presented himself and altered the score to 1:1. The players left the ice with this score.
The middle period of the full regulation time brought spectator attractive hockey too, during which both teams took care of several good goal chances. The first belonged to Švec who tried to shoot, but Ovčačík stole the opponent's puck as it was in the air. This was followed by the action of Varga, but after his solo-breakaway, Habal did an amazing save and didn't let him change the score. In the 30th minute, Deveaux unpleasantly hit Kafka, which meant the end of the match for both of them. The player from Trenčín received a game misconduct penalty for kneeing, our forward left the ice in huge pain. Pacan was determined to revenge the Czech winger of the 3rd formation of Košice, and he could increase the score to 2:1 for The Steelers, but Valent did not let him do so. Therefore, we did not see a goal in the 2nd period.
Košice entered the 3rd period better, its players got Trenčín under pressure, obviously, mostly during the power play. The Steelers sent several good shots towards the net, but the goalie Valent proved his qualities and he saved the puck of Hovorka, Suja and Spilar. Finally, we saw a rather aggressive end of the match, when the main referees sent the goalie of Košice, Haban, to the dress room. Hosting Dukla took this opportunity, and as Varga and Ölvecký scored 2 times, Trenčín overcame Košice with final result 3:1.
Peter Oremus, the coach of Trenčín: "We have just played a very important match, and the 3 points we gained are of a great value for us. It wasn't easy to defeat Košice, but our guys delivered amazing team performance."
Roman Šimíček, the coach of Košice: "It's really difficult for me to asses this match. We were an equal opponent for Trenčín during the 1st period, on the other hand, they dominated in the 2nd one. We had several goal chances in the final period, but unfortunately, we did not manage to score. The final minutes were decisive, we lost due to our own lack of discipline.
