Thirty-one different hockey players wore at least once a jersey with logo of HC Košice this season. The players were three goalies, eleven defensemen and twenty-three forwards. Most of them were, of course, of Slovak nationality, thirty in total out of which nine were still playing in junior category. Four players in our cabin came from our western neighbor, the Czech Republic, and an enclave of foreign players included two players from Slovenia and one player from Russia. Following the results of junior categories, let’s have a look at figures of our A-Team.

Since the season haven’t reached its proper end for the first time in the history of the highest Slovak hockey league and fans didn’t have an opportunity to enjoy play-off matches because of the worldwide pandemic, we are going to talk about results from 55 rounds that were played out. In those 55 rounds, our players recorder 28 victories and 14 losses, including the extension part. When a match was tied during the regular part, which happened 13 times, our team managed to win a deciding point during overtime, or during shootouts, 9 times. It should also be pointed out that 7 of 9 victories happened after shootouts. In this regard, our team was the best one in the league. Only Banská Bystrica managed to beat us in the shootouts. At the end of the season, we had 106 points on our credit.

If we go into a little bit more detail, we can say that we performed better in front of our fans at home, in Steel Arena. At home we gained 57 points, only Poprad won more points at their home arena. But we definitely didn’t leave the opponents’ stadiums empty-handed. In this regard, the players of Košice ended up third when they added 49 points to their credit. The overall score of the team is also positive. While our goalies had to take the puck out of a net 114 times in total, fans of the Steelers could enjoy scorings of our players 163 times. Defense of Košice was the second best one in the league. Neither Nitra, nor Michalovce could find a recipe for our game and beat us. Zvolen may be considered as the “most favourite opponent” with whom the Steelers won 5 out of 6 possible matches. It should also be mentioned that we don’t have any negative overall score with any team, except Rams from Banská Bystrica. The highest victory came in 7^th round in the ice rink of Nitra – 9:0.

During the first half of the season, the players of head coach Peter Draisaitl were the best in power-players. At the end of the season they finished 4^th with a percentage of achievement around 18.62%. Approximately every fifth power-play of our team meant penalization of opponent’s indiscipline. We were also successful when playing short-handed and finished one position higher than during the power-plays. Players of Košice got penalized 231 times in total. In 29 cases they had to play 3 on 5. In these situations, they managed to stay strong and defend 35 times which represents 84.85% success in the situations when we played short-handed. In terms of discipline, HC Košice finished the season as the fourth most disciplined team of the league.

Now, let’s talk about individual statistics, the leader of which is Marcel Haščák – the fourth most productive player of the league. Beside Haščák, also Dávid Skokan (53) and Michal Chovan (48) finished the season ranked within the top 10 most productive players of the league. This means, that we are the only team who had 3 players ranked in top 10! “Haky“ won the first place also in other categories – he scored 33 times, which is the most in the whole Tipsport League! From the team of Košice, Dávid Skokan standed as second with 18 goals and the third one is Branislav Rapáč with 16 goals on his credit. The captain of HC Košice, Dávid Skokan (35), also finished with the highest number of goals assists on his credit. Closely behind Skokan finished the no less famous duo of Košice Chovan (33) and who else but Marcel Haščák (22). The former player of Poprad, and todays’ forward of Košice is also a player with the highest number of Canadian points acquired in a single match. If he had got one more point in the 26th round against Liptovský Mikuláš, he would have broken the long-lasting record of the league. The most productive legionnaire was the Czech player, Pavel Klhůfek, with 23 points on his credit.

By their performances, the defense of HC Košice proved that besides hard work, they also contribute to offense. Our most productive defenseman, David Růžička, knows what we are talking about. Before the beginning of the season he was saying with a smile that he fancies rather defense duties, but thanks to coach’s trust in him and constant presence around the blue line during the power-plays he gathered 20 Canadian points for 3 goals and 17 assists. The second place belongs to our young representative, Patrik Koch. Even though he didn’t score, he assisted his teammates 13 times. The most precise shooter among defensemen was Jurij Repe. For five goals and seven passes he achieved “bronze” within the team. We would like to wrap up the overall statistics with our goaltender Andrej Košarišťan who gave the best performances among three poles. His percentage of achievement was 93.37% which brought him the silver medal. He was the second-best goaltender of the league. Andrej as well as his fans can also be happy about five shutouts. Among other things, he played also for the national representation and wasn’t left out of the event “AllStar” in Trenčín.

We as well as all the participants, staff and players are sad about the unfortunate ending of the season. Boys and people involved worked very hard throughout the year so that the fans could enjoy the best performances, and we are very grateful to them for that! Which moment of the season was the most memorable one for you?

(HC KE media tim : SB)