Steelers will play both remaining games on home ice. All of you are invited to attend Košice's fight against HC 07 Detva on Friday, and on Sunday, players from Hungarian DVTK Jegesmedvék will travel to Košice for the 2nd time already in this season.

The club from Detva has just launched its second season in the Slovak top competition. After last-year's survival in the Tipsport League, they would definitely love to get to the play-off. So far, the start of this season has been quite successful for them. Most recently, they outscored MsHK Žilina 2:1 with a home ice advantage, when Michal Murček scored two times. Their overall standing is 18 points from 13 matches, what's enough for 8th place in the standings.

No severe changes took place in Detva's cadre, but several players left the team, which had to cope with the situation. Both the club's management and the coach, Josef Turek bet on the goalie duo, who entered the top Slovak league in 2017/2018 season. 24-year old Roman Petrík from Skalica joined the team. He performed in 10 games, with his success rate amounting to 91.14 %. His two-years-older colleague and ex-player of Košice, Dominik Riečický, also managed to perform in this season in the Slovak top hockey competition, with his current success rate 89,47 %.

When it comes to defence, there haven't been any significant changes compared to previous season. The defense was joined by Peter Hraško, who came from HKM Zvolen for a limited transfer. 26-year old player didn't get enough space in his team, and therefore, he decided to help players from Detva gain some points.

During summer, duo Viktor Fekiač and Martin Ďaloga joined Detva's team after leaving Zvolen. However, both of them have some experience with Detva, it is even the home-land of the latter. After unsuccessful summer attempts in Czech team Zlín, Radovan Puliš returned to the Tipsport League. He is also a former player of Zvolen, but due to his injury, he couldn't perform in several matches. The offense was joined by Czech player Zděnek Král. 26-year old winger launched his hockey career in Liberec, but spent the last season in a first-league team - Benátky nad Jizerou and Prostějov, gaining 38 Canadian points in 51 matches, namely for 12 goals and 26 assists. An eye-catching member of Detva cadre is definitely a Russian player - Igor Magogin. 37-year old native from Jekaterinburg played 364 games in the KHL with balance of 47 goals and 98 assists, wearing the jerseys of Jugry Chanty-Mansijsk, Lada Toggliati and Severstaľ Čerepovec. Magogin is not the only Russian support in the team, Maxim Jakuceňa is also waiting for his debut in Detva jersey. He gained much experience in the KHL, where he played 526 games, scoring 104 times and assisting 163 times.

Current leader of Canadian points in Detva is Radovan Puliš. He has already managed to score 5 goals and help with 9 assists. The second rank is occupied by a forward with Košice club background – Ladislav Ščurko. He has 3 goals and 8 assists on his account in the same number of matches. The last one among the top three is another ex-player of košice - Matúš Chovan. Former Slovak junior ice-hockey representation forward scored 3-times and contributed with 4 assists. So far, the leader among the defensemen is a player, who launched his careers in our Košice jersey, Martin Chovan. His balance – 13 matches, 1 goal, 6 assists.

Games HC Košice vs HC 07 Detva of the last season:
2017/2018: 1:0, 3:2, 3:1, 5:3, 4:3, 2:1
(Košice home-ice games are highlighted in bold)

HC Košice and HC 07 Detva line-ups from the last round:

HC Košice: Habal – Koch, Pretnar, Pulli, Čížek, Šedivý, Dudáš, Lenďák – Nagy, Brophey, Haščák – Kafka, Suja, Netík – Šoltés, Galamboš, Spilar – Vrábeľ, Krajňák, Hričina – Žitný.

HC 07 Detva: Petrík - Mar. Chovan, Kuklev, F. Fekiač, Sládok, Hraško, Jendroľ, Gachulinec, Šimon - Ščurko, Murček, Puliš - Ďaloga, V. Fekiač, Žilka - Surový, Magogin, Král - Tibenský, Valent, Mat. Chovan.

Our players are getting ready to fight against our nearby city team - Miškovec. Its players are about to visit metropolis of the eastern Slovakia for the 3rd time already. After their loss (1:7) in the pre-season game, they had another match against Košice in a regular season as well, but were again outscored 6:3. After a successful entry into the season, DVTK Jegesmedvék had quite a hard time. They have gained only 2 points in the last 5 matches, and so, they occupy the 11th place in the standings. They gained the same number of points (14) as the other Hungarian contestant of the Tipsport League – MAC Budapešť (the team has played 15 games already).

So far, the Finnish player Rasmus Kulmala has been leading the productivity rankings of Miškovec.   24-year old forward has gained 12 points for 4 goals and 8 assists in 13 matches. János Vas has the same number of points as well. He scored 2 times and helped with 10 assists. A Slovene player, Ziga Pance has gained 11 Canadian points in 13 matches. Leader among the defensemen is a Canadian, Nicholas Crawford, with his 8 Canadian points for one goal and 7 assists in 13 matches.

Both goalies – Attila Adorján and David Duschek got the chance to show off. While the former has demonstrated 89,32 SV % in 11 matches, his colleague has performed in 3 matches only with 86,52 SV %.

Line-ups of DVTK Jegesmedvék Miskolc of the last round:

DVTK Jégesmedvék Miškovec: Adorján – Kiss, Crawford, T. Slovák, Szirányi, Milam, Láda, Vojtkó – Magosi, Harrison, Miskolczi – Kulmala, Vas, Pance – Hajós, Loiseau, Somogyi – Vincze, Galanisz, Ritó

Join us at Steel Arena and have a good hockey time! Let's support our guys in their battle over valuable points. Opening face-off against Detva will take place on Friday, October 19th at 5:30 PM, the match against DVTK Jegesmedvék Miskolc begins at 5:00 PM on Sunday. HIT IT KOŠICE!