Almost half of the Tipsport League matches have already been played. We are about to play two challenging matches. After the Steelers' loss to Poprad on Tuesday (3:4 after shootouts), our guys will play against two teams of the top Slovak hockey competition. On Friday, they will perform against Banská Bystrica and an interesting duel will take place on Sunday - Košice vs. Dukla Trenčín!

At the beginning of the season, Banská Bystrica was not very successful as they were not able to reach the top positions. For now, they occupy 4th place with 54 points. They gained important points because of their victories against Budapešť (6:3) and Žilina (7:3). Banská Bystrica primarily excels in power plays. In Žilina, they managed to score 6 times from overall 10 cases. When talking about power plays, they are the best team of the Tipsport League and they currently occupy the 1st place. In 115 power plays, the players of Banská Bystrica scored 30 goals which can be demonstrated by 26,09% success rate. They are also successful in shorthanded plays. During 108 shorthanded plays, they were successful in 94 cases (87,04%) which places then on the 3rd place, right behind the Steelers.

Banská Bystrica is not one of our favorite teams since we managed to win only twice over them (out of 13 matches).

The top positions of Canadian points ranking belong to 4 foreign players. The first one is Canadian forward Brock Higgs who gained 28 points for 11 goals and 17 assists in 19 matches. He is followed by defenseman Benjamin Marshall. This American player scored 7 goals and helped the team out with 16 assists in 27 matches. The next one is Canadian forward Guillaume Asselin who is, along with Higgs, one of the best team's strikers. His overall balance is 11 goals and 17 assists. Another Canadian player Éric Faille managed to score 4 goals and 16 assists in 23 matches. There are two goalies who support their teammates from Banská Bystrica. American goalie Stephon Williams performed in 20 matches and his success rate is 91,88%. He even managed to keep clean sheet in 2 matches. Slovak goalie Samuel Baroš played in 9 matches and his success rate has climbed up to 91,86%.

Formations from previous round:

Košice Habal - Pretnar, Šedivý, McDowell, Dudáš, Čížek, Pulli, Koch - Kafka, Brophey, Nagy - Spilar, Ignatuškin, Suja - Vrábeľ, Galamboš, Šoltés - Hričina, Krajňák, Klíma - Žitný

Banská Bystrica: Baroš – Nemčík, Marshall, Mihalík, Sloboda, Ďatelinka, Petrinec, Török – Selleck, Higgs, Asselin – Zigo, Faille, Sýkora – Gabor, Češík, Kabáč – Šťastný, Varga

An interesting duel between HC Košice and Dukla Trenčín will take place on Sunday in Steel Arena. However, Dukla Trenčín was successful, they seem to struggle a little bit in this season. For now, they occupy 7th place with 44 points.

They are not so successful in power plays, as well as in shorthanded plays.  They occupy 9th place in the power play goals percentage, as they managed to score 19 goals from 121 cases (15,70%).  During 112 shorthanded plays, they conceded 23 goals, which places them on 10th place in shorthanded goals percentage (79,46%). In this percentage, there are only 3 teams worse than Trenčín and that is Žilina, Nitra and HK Orange 20.

There are two goalies in Dukla Trenčín, Michal Valent and Marek Šimko. Valent played in 26 matches in this season, his balance is 5+14.  He managed to keep clean sheet in 5 matches. Marek Šimko performed in 6 matches and his success rate is 92,48%. Leaders of Canadian points rankings are as follows: The first place is occupied by Milan Bartovič who gained 23 points for 10 goals and 13 assists in 27 matches. He is followed by team captain Branko Radivojevič with 22 Canadian points (7+15). Forward Marek Hecl occupies 3rd place. He scored 7 goals and 6 assists.

Formations from 27th round:

Trenčín: Valent - Rýgl, Krejčí, Bohunický, Holenda, Kovář, Frühauf, Luža - Radivojevič, Sojčík, Švec - Bartovič, Sádecký, Hecl - Varga, Dlouhý, Mikula - Hudec, Pardavý, Špankovič

Come and support our guys and help them to win! Let's help them to walk away with victory! Buy tickets online on www.ticketportal.sk. Attention, Sunday's match will start at 16:00!

Every person with season-ticket has a chance to win SKY BOX! Winner will be announced after the 2nd period.

HIT IT KOŠICE!