Petr Ton, the 40-year-old winger, is in his 22nd professional season and his 11th consecutive with HC Sparta Praha. Centre Jaroslav Hlinka, 37, is a home-grown Spartan who has left to play abroad on a few occasions, including the 2007-08 season with the Colorado Avalanche, but keeps coming back.
Before Tuesday´s home game against Kladno, they were each honoured for having played in their 600th games with Sparta -- milestones they each reached last week. There were more miletones on the horizon for the pair, though.
Ton, already the club´s all-time leading goal-scorer, entered the game with 564 points with Sparta, 1 behind Richard Žemlička. Hlinka, meanwhile, also entered the game on the heels of another club record -- his 346 assists were 2 behind the total of David Výborný.
"When I was younger, he was my idol, even though he´s only two years older than me," Hlinka said of Výborný, whose 12 seasons with Sparta surrounded a seven-year NHL career with the Columbus Blue Jackets. He still plays for Mladá Boleslav in the Czech Republic´s second-highest league. "When I started here with Sparta, I learned so much from him and now I´m a better player because of him."
With both players so close to new club records, everone in the building was aware of the possibility of them both falling this game, including the players.
"I must admit that I was thinking about it before the game, and I told Petr that too," confessed Hlinka. "I was feeling very good, so I hoped that I could reach it today."
Sparta started quickly, and had already scored once when the pair drew assists on Adam Polášek´s rebound goal at 6:43 to make it 2-0. Ton was now tied with Žemlička and Hlinka was just one assist behind Výborný.
Just six minutes later, Hlinka fed Karel Pilář, who scored to make it 3-0. Both players had now tied their milestones, and it was still the first period. Late in the second, both records fell on the same goal.
"It makes me more happy that it came at the same time for both of us," said Ton, who scored the goal on a backhander after a feed from a familiar source with 2:07 left in the middle frame to make it 5-0. "This is one of the moments that I´ll never forget. It was huge experience for us and also for the fans."
"I´m very happy that we broke the records at the same time on the same goal," agreed Hlinka.
The only problem with both players setting records on the same goal was that there was only one puck to share between them. The solution? It was cut in half, of course. One half for Ton and the other for Hlinka.
Sparta went on to win the game 6-0, to clinch first place in the Czech Extraliga standings. The team now hopes for much more to celebrate in the playoffs.
"I hope that we continue on with the team success. If the team also has success, it will make this more special," Ton said afterward. "In my career, I´ve won the scoring title, I´ve won the trophy for most goals in a season, but it wasn´t followed by team success. Without that, individual success doesn´t mean much. If I was 22 or 23 and going to NHL, maybe it would be different, but now, I really want to accomplish something big as a team one more time."
"We´ve both done it and now the pressure is off us," said Hlinka, also looking ahead. "It was very nice, but tomorrow is a new day. Now we can concentrate on the playoffs and we all really want to win the championship. We hope we can do it."
