Two goals in the tournament scored 28 years old forward Tomas Kratky. As it happens, both scored against the same team – HK Riga, with whom Sparta played its first and week later also the last match on the tournament. But sixth place surely wasn’t Spartans’ goal. What did they actually expected? “We really wanted to get at least to semifinals. But we didn’t play well against Astana. We just blew it,” admits Tomas.

Final standings

• 1. Lokomotiv Jaroslavl
• 2. Reaktor Nizhnekamsk
• 3. Astana
• 4. Jokerit Helsinky
• 5. HK Riga
• 6. HC SPARTA PRAGUE
• 7. Malmö Redhawks
• 8. HC Slovan Bratislava

A day before the foiled match against Kazakhs David Koci gave an interview to local media. "We’re not entirely happy about certain things. We still have room to grow. We don’t have a lot of time to improve certain tactics and this is why we make so many defensive mistakes, play clumsy exiting the zone and have troubles with our powerplay. However, I can’t say anything about our motivation and willingness to battle, which is also very important. The guys try to play aggressive hockey but not get into a penalty problem. We try to control the puck more, be first on the rebounds and play passing hockey. This is what we tell our guys to do. Hopefully, we’re going to see more of that in the future and we’ll improve with every game," judged after high loose 3:7 with home team Nizhnekamsk.

Players agree with their coach and fails mentioned above confirms also Tomáš Krátký. “We practiced power-play almost every match day before the match started. When it was free day, we tried to improve our power-play skills in training. I think we did our best but it still doesn’t work the way we’d like it to work. We need to find a better way how to improve our positioning and puck carrying. We must defend the puck and shoot more. What more, we don’t use backs as much as we should. I believe it will come better soon.”

The tournament apparently threw light on what the team is lagging behind. In every way, however, it was the prestigious event and for many Sparta players, including Tomáš Krátký, it was the first great international experience. "I was on international tournament when I was young and played in junior team in Litvinov, and also last year I was in Switzerland last year. But this is the first “big one” for me," says a member of the Spartans.

They faced a confrontation with rivals from different countries. Actually, how is playing against teams from Latvia and Kazakhstan, which are not on the ice-hockey top yet? ”I think we had the biggest chance against Riga. Both matches weren’t as difficult as the ones against other teams were. And what more I managed to score a goal in both of them,” says Krátký. In contrast to this, there were also less tempting dishes on a “ice-hockey menu”.

Especially Malmö was the least digestible one for Sparta. “The Swedes skates well and thanks to their defense, we have a hard time getting into chances. The Russians also presents fast skating ice hockey and they are very unpleasant in personal duels. But the hardest experience was playing with the Swedes, whose game is well thought out and well organized." But finally, Sparta luckily defeated Malmö after a penalty shootout. It was worse with the Russians who didn’t let a single point.

"We started well against domestic Nizhnekamsk. The first ten minutes we were positively better. Of course, we can not excuse to referees, but Nizhnekamsk got to power-play, which was followed by three quick goals and our other efforts seemed rather cramped. Team performance wasn’t ideal. Later I saw the match between Nizhnekamsk and Lokomotiv Jaroslav, which was completely sovereign and deservedly won the tournament," acknowledges Sparta’s shooter.

Three quick goals came also six days later. It was the match for fith place. During the middle third Sparta created a solid lead against the team of Riga. But soon after the second break, everything changed. What was the main reason for the Latvians not only equalized but even added one bonus shot, which meant they took control of the match?

"We just can’t concentrate until the very end of the match. We have moments when we play well and we keep a pace that our coaches want us to keep. But later we just loose it and it happens that everyone of us plays basically what they want. As a result we unnecessarily loose the matches. But I hope this could get better with practice. Practice makes perfect. And I believe we can deal with it and there will be no problem during an upcoming season.”

First day (saturday 20 September):

HC Sparta Praha - HC Riga 5:4 SO (2:0, 1:1, 1:3 - 0:0)

Goals and assists: 2. Dubsky (Wojnar), 17. Kratky, 25. Jerabek (T. Jandus, Svoboda), 55. M. Jandus, winning penalty shot Svoboda - 22. Sprukts (Balinskis), 41. Sprukts (Balinskis, Galoha), 42. Sthrombergs, 44. Berzins (Kalkis). Penalties: 5:6. Power play goals: 2:1. Shorthanded goals: 0:0. Shots on goal: 46:42. Scoring sequence: 2:0, 2:1, 3:1, 3:4, 5:4. Successfull shootouts: Svoboda (2x) - Vulkanov.

Second Day (sunday 21 September):

Reaktor Nizhnekamsk - HC Sparta Praha 7:3 (3:0, 3:0, 1:3)

Goals and assists: 11. Nabiullin, 14. Pacin (Bikmullin, Ugolnikov), 16. Dzedaev (Vojvodin, Nabiullin), 29. Ugolnikov (Korcemkin, Bikmullin), 32. Pacin (Sorokin, Chisamutdinov), 36. Chafizov (Pacin, Chisamutdinov), 48. Safigulin (Galeev, Golubovic) – 54. Seniov (Kulda, Zidek), 58. Eliás (Jandus, Jandus), 60. Jerabek. Penalties: 9:11. Power play goals: 3:1. Shorthanded goals: 0:0. Shots on goal: 45:30. Scoring sequence: 3:0, 6:0, 7:0, 7:3.

Third Day (tuesday 23 September):

Malmö Redhawks - HC Sparta Praha 0:1 SO (0:0, 0:0, 0:0 - 0:0)

Goals and assists: winning penalty shot T. Jandus. Penalties: 8:5. Power play goals: 0:0. Shorthanded goals: 0:0. Shots on goal: 39:19. Successfull shootouts:: Olsson - Svoboda, T. Jandus.

Fourth Day (wednesday 25 September):

HC Sparta Praha - MHC Snezhnye Barsy 2:5 (0:2, 1:3, 1:0)

Goals and assists: 34. Jandus M. (Jandus T.), 54. Dubsky (Seniov) - 14. Gurkov, 18. Baldin (Makeyev, Tokarev), 22. Baldin (Makeyev), 36. Loktev (Gurkov, Orekhov), 39. Makeyev (Medvedev, Melnikov). Penalties: 9:12. Power play goals: 1:0. Shorthanded goals: 0:0. Shots on goal: 29:32. Scoring sequence: 3:0, 3:1, 5:1, 5:2.

Fifth Day - Fifth-place game (saturday 27 September):

HC Sparta Praha - HK Riga 4:5 (1:1, 3:1, 0:3)

Goals and assists: 10. Kratky (Jandus), 31. Chlouba (Marsoun), 33. Wojnar (Duben, Safin), 36. Safin (Svoboda) – 17. Kalkis (Ezitis), 26. Chomjakov (Balinskis, Pankevic), 46. Galoha (Sprukts), 50. Svars (Sprukts, Baranovski), 52. Galoha (Baranovic, Sprukts). Penalties: 3:4, extra Martin Dubsky (SPA) 5 + OK. Power play goals: 1:0. Shorthanded goals: 0:1. Shots on goal: 28:24. Scoring sequence: 1:2, 4:2, 4:5.