Home match against current champion on Sunday!

ADDED: 26.10.2018

Two matches will take place this week. The first one will be played on Friday 26 October at 17:00 in Poprad. On Sunday 28 October, the Steelers will play against Banská Bystrica, the Slovak champion of the last two seasons. 

Friday's match will be an opportunity for our guys to make amends for their previous loss from 5th round which was our first loss in this season and to this day it is the only loss we suffered on our home ice. In the last match against MsHK Žilina, HK Poprad enjoyed their victory with the result 7:3 and currently occupies 4th place with their 31 points. However, they are facing a punishment because of Martin Belluš who started twice in one round. In the following days, it will be decided whether they will lose their points or pay a fine.

Excellent show is performed by Czech goalie Tomáš Vošvrda. His rate of success in 11 matches of the Tipsport League is 95,24 % and he even kept his clean sheet twice. His Slovenian colleague Luka Gračnar is not doing bad as well. For now, his statistics are excellent - 9 matches, success rate 94,07% and one clean sheet.

The productivity leader of HK Poprad is an experienced forward and IIHF World Championship participant - Patrik Svitana. During this season, he played in 16 matches, scored 5 goals and helped the team out with 9 assists. He is followed by Lukáš Paukovček, who gained 9 Canadian points for 9 assists. The third most productive player of HK Poprad is another IIHF World Championship participant - Dávid Bondra. He managed to acquire 8 Canadian points in 12 matches. He scored 8 goals which makes him the best striker of the team.

Mutual matches between Hc Košice and HK Poprad in 2017/2018:
2017/2018 5:2, 1:0, 3:1, 2:4, 6:2, 2:4
(home matches of HC Košice in bold)

Formation of HK Poprad from previous round:

Poprad: Vošvrda Petran, D. Brejčák, Salija, Ťavoda, Erving, Kozák, Fabian Václav, Mlynarovič, Takáč Koyš, Zagrapan, Abdul D. Bondra, Heizer, Svitana Macík, L. Paukovček, Belluš

An interesting duel will take place on Sunday in Steel Arena. The champion of 2017 and 2018 gained important points after the victory over Nitra ending with score 3:2. For now, they occupy 5th position in the extra league with 29 points. Banská Bystrica is one of the leaders in the power play goals percentage, as they managed to score 20 times from overall 68 shots (29,41%). They are successful in defense plays as well.  During 65 defense plays, they were successful in 58 cases (89,23%) which places them on the 2nd position.

Recently, there were several changes in HK Nitra's team. The team was joined by new goalie duo. The first goalie is 25-year old American Stephon Williams who plays in the European team for the first time. So far, he played in 13 matches and his success rate has climbed up to 91,29%.  His goalie partner Samuel Bároš performed in the jersey of Nové Zámky in the past. However, he managed to lose 3 matches out of four and thus his personal success rate is only 90,41%.

Two famous defensemen joined the HC 05 Banská Bystrica - Marek Biro (former player of HC Košice) and Karol Sloboda. The team of Banská Bystrica was joined by several foreign players. In the last season, Canadian player Brenden Miller played in Russian Supreme Hockey League, wearing the jersey of Torpedo Usť-Kamenogorsk. The second one is 26-year old American player Ben Marshall. The native of St. Paul was drafted in 7th round from 201th place by Detroit Red Wings. The newest defenseman in the team is 26-year old Slovak Martin Nemčík. He has previous experiences from Tipsport League as he played in HK Dukla Trenčín. During last seasons, he played in ECHL.

Brock Higgs has returned to the HK Nitra after a year spent in Graz, Austria. At the end of the previous season, 26-year old Canadian forward also became a player of HC La Chaux-de-Fonds (Switzerland). The next player that has returned is forward Ján Sýkora. During last 5 seasons, he played in the Czech Republic where he performed in several teams, including Plzeň, Třinec or Pardubice. Another forward - Andrej Šťastný left Slovan Bratislava to play in Banská Bystrica. In KHL, he scored 27 goals and 34 assists in 239 matches. Last week, Canadian forward Eric Selleck signed a contract with HC 05 Banská Bystrica. Eric has previous experiences from AHL, he played in three NHL matches even though he was not drafted.

The productivity leader of Banská Bystrica is defenseman Ben Marshall. In 16 matches, he added 15 Canadian points to his credit for 5 goals and 10 assists. The second place is occupied by Canadian forward Eric Faille. He managed to score 3 times and assisted to 10 goals in 15 matches. He is followed by duo Guillaume Asselin Ján Sýkora. They both gained 10 Canadian points - Asselin played in 16 matches and his balance is 5+5. Sýkora, on the other hand, played in 15 matches in which he scored 3 goals and helped the team out with 7 assists.

Mutual matches between HC Košice and HC 05 Banská Bystrica in 2017/2018:
2017/2018 1:2, 5:2, 3:5, 2:4, 2:5, 4:5 sn, 2:3 sn, 1:2, 3:2 pp, 0:3, 0:1 pp
(home matches of HC Košice in bold)

Formations from previous round:

HC Košice: Škorvánek Pretnar, Koch, Čížek, Pulli, Dudáš, Šedivý, Lenďák Spilar, Brophey, Nagy Netík, Suja, Kafka Hričina, Galamboš, Šoltés Klíma, Krajňák, Žitný Petráš

Banská Bystrica: Williams - Miller, Marshall, Mihalik, K. Sloboda, Ďatelinka, Kubka, Nemčík, Biro - Selleck, Faille, Asselin - Török, Higgs, J. Sýkora - Gabor, Češík, Kabáč - Varga, Buc, Lichanec

Come support the Steelers in a challenging match against current champion. Let's encourage them to gain the important points. Attention, Sunday's match will start at 16:00 due to TV broadcasting. HIT IT KOŠICE!