Thanks to the opening goal in the second final on the ice of Hradec Králové, the Třinec gunner Martin Růžička became the leader of the historical ranking of the best scorers in the play-offs of the independent Czech extra league. With his jubilee 60th goal, he broke away from Ondřej Kratěna, but as he emphasized in the post-match interview with journalists, team goals are currently superior to personal achievements.
“Obviously I appreciate it a lot. It’s an honor to be among the players that are there. I really appreciate it a lot, but I think I’ll appreciate it later, or after my career, because now we’re in the beginning of the finals series and something like that we don’t deal with personal matters in the cabin. Now that goes by the wayside,” said Růžička.
His intervention at the end of the ninth minute came after a successful challenge by Andrej Nestrašil and Daniel Voženílek. “A great move by Andrej and Vožuch, they threw it in front of the goal, where it found me and fortunately it fell in,” described Růžička, who found himself in the same formation with both of them by chance. Otherwise, his partners in attack are Tomáš Marcinko and Aron Chmielewski.
“I had something with a knife on my skates, so I just replaced, Marko (Daňo) went there instead of me and then I went again with his line,” Růžička explained the short-term change.
He surpassed Kratena, who remains the record holder with eight titles, the thirty-seven-year-old leader from Třinec is aiming for the sixth. “I don’t have this in my head at all. I don’t think that far ahead at all. After all, we’re only at the beginning of the series,” Růžička pointed out.
Slezáné took an extremely valuable second point, although the home team Hradec Králové was much closer to the winning goal in extra time, they were much more active. Růžička, however, denied that his team was running out of strength.
“Not at all. Hradec played great in overtime, was active and moved well. We did come under pressure, but we tried to be patient. Kác made a great catch, and he caught everything he could. We blocked a lot of shots. It was important that we didn’t panic in any way. And in the end we scored the winning goal,” stated Růžička.
Just like on Tuesday, Voženielek became a hero. He scored for the sixth time in this year’s elimination battles.
“He’s great. He’s a fighter and he does an awful lot for our team. He’s being rewarded for that with those goals, of course I wish him that and I hope he continues to do that. He’s been playing great all playoffs, he’s annoying for the opposition and strong on the puck , we are glad to have him,” praised Růžička.
The defending champions now have two home games ahead of them, so they have a chance to close the series in the shortest possible time, thanks to which they could possibly celebrate another triumph with their spectators. However, the experienced striker very forcefully rejected considerations on this topic.
“Whether we can end it or not, that’s hardly something to talk about right now. We’ll prepare for the third game and that’s what we have in mind now. Hradec is a very active team, they try to skate a lot, which they practice all season long. And We will certainly prepare for that as well,” Růžička said.
