During the weekend, our players faced HK Gladiators Trnava. Tight final score is a proof that our guys laid it out there. Saturday duel ended successfully. Lukáš Kaža scored the first goal right at the beginning of the game. In the half of the first period, Miroslav Tvrdoň raised the score to 2:0. The opponents tied the score with two quick goals right at the start of the second period. Our players ended up so shocked that despite their great effort, they couldn't raise the score. The match continued in the overtime where juniors from Trnava scored and took home two points.

"We started the game very well the proof of which were two goals in the opponent's net during the first period. After a nice combination we also took advantage of the power-play 5 on 4. Slight loss of concentration at the beginning of the second period deprived us of better outcome as well as of points. The opponent tied the score and scored the winning goal during the overtime. Trnava punished three individual faults that we made in the defense. We had many opportunities to score, but they remained unused. Of course, we should admit the quality of opponent's team whose players were very disciplined, and their goaltender didn't let them down. On our part it was one of the better matches which we didn't brought to a victorious finish. We can only regret first five minutes of the second period and all the missed chances. I complimented boys for their performance, but I pointed out that we also have to start winning not just play well," evaluated the match the main coach of juniors of Košice Tomáš Kochan.

Another round of the weekend double-match started with a conceded goal in 15th minute. Juniors of Košice managed to tie the score only in 9th minute of the third period. Lukáš Kaža sent

the puck behind the goaltender of Trnava after nice assistances from Miroslav Tvrdoň and Pavol Zůbek. Five minutes before the end, opponents scored and brought the match to a victorious finish.

How was the match progressing from the perspective of the coach, Tomáš Kochan? "From our perspective, today's match wasn't so well in terms of game compare to our last match. We made unnecessary mistakes in defense which we had already talked about before the match. Once again, we were weak on scoring chances. It is hard to win a match with one goal. In the third period, except the opportunity during the power-play 5 on 4, we had several scoring chances. But we didn't succeed. Trnava, on the other hand, punished our foul before the end of the third period and won the match."

Each match brings some positives but also some negatives: "Personally, I consider our scoring inefficiency, unnecessary individual faults in defense as negative. Also, in the second match we lacked fighting spirit, humbleness and discipline. I would say the positives were: game performance of the team during Saturday's duel and performance of our goaltender. Another positive is also the fact that the team found out that victory cannot be taken for granted. Instead, it is a result of hard work of every single player during practices and preparation season.

Altogether, our juniors took one point from the weekend matches. But neither coaches nor the players neglect ther preparation, and they are getting better and better with every match. Coach Tomáš Kochan says that the following are the essential parts of every training process and game preparation: "We prepare our boys to play each match with enthusiasm and joy, and of course, we want them to stay disciplined and respect certain principles. They kept off making individual faults, they fought vigorously, and they enjoyed scoring goals. We teach them how to win matches. But we are not always able to transfer every single of these attributes into a match. More specifically, in the first match we lacked the joy from the goals we scored. In the second one we lacked the will to win, we lacked fighting spirit and discipline. Each player must realize their role in the team, must find his own position and help the team with his skills and talent.

Formation of HC Košice (Round 31): Jurčák – Ragan, Zůbek, Kmec, Bartoš A., Štec, Štefanisko, Šándor – Tvrdoň, Repčík, Kaža – Bartoš J., Miškuf, Tvrdoň – Novota, Jadrný, Novák – Jurčo, Krasnozhon, Jadrníček

Formation of HC Košice (Round 32): Jurčák – Ragan, Zůbek, Kmec, Bartoš A., Štec, Štefanisko – Tvrdoň, Repčík, Kaža – Bartoš J., Novák, Tvrdoň – Jurčo, Jadrný, Miškuf – Krasnozhon, Šándor, Novota