Sparta Prague is one of the best-known brand names in European sports. Established in 1903, the hockey club has been successful domestically with eight national titles, and has a wealth of international experience including the Spengler Cup, European Hockey League, European Champions Cup, European Trophy and now the Champions Hockey League. And now, Sparta Prague made the longest journey in CHL since its first season. The team could capture the big prize – a European Trophy, but was beated by Frölunda Gothenburg in overtime of final battle. Spartans are not comming back empty-handed. Each of them got a silver medal which is also a high success.
But on the other hand, after the winning goal of Niklas Lasu, Sparta felt naturally also disappointed at that moment. "Of course we´re disappointed because we wanted to win. We came so far, so it´s a shame we didn´t finish it. For me, this would have been the biggest success in club competition, because we proved ourselves internationally," Lukáš Pech said.
"In my opinion, we played really well in the first period. There were some useless penalties so the game became more complicated for us after that, but we showed a good performance. Frölunda tied the score and used home ice advantage of course. The home team was better in the rink during the second period," Jiří Kalous admitted.
Sparta got into the overtime thanks to the pressure in the third period and Frölunda has also some weaknesses. "They played well, but I don´t think they were unbeatable. I don´t want to compare them against other teams we´ve played against. Of course, they are one of the strongest, but I think we´ve also had other quality opponents that we absolutely surprised," in Lukáš Pech´s opinion.
"We had several opportunities to score the winning goal, which unfortunately didn´t happen. Finally, the game went into overtime, which is always a lottery and unfortunately it didn´t go our way. We also made a mistake. We did not play well with the puck and we were not strong in front of their net,” said Jiří Kalous about the overtime honestly.
Frölunda defended its last season tittle and proved the power of its team. Sparta, on the other hand, made a big step forward. Spartans would never been closer to the final than this. They did not achieve the trophy but they managed great publicity of Champions Hockey League, their club and Czech ice hockey in general.
