Kometa coach disputes Pardubice assistant's take on the game

Brno's Kometa lost 3:5 at home to Pardubice, the reigning national champions, in round five of the Czech Extraliga, and after the match home coach Pokorný publicly disagreed with the assessment given by his opponent's assistant coach.

Coaches spar after the game

At the post-match press conference, Pardubice assistant coach Václav Kočí said: "We played a good, patient game, kept control with only a couple of minor lapses, and deservedly took the three points." Kometa coach Pokorný, who has served as assistant to head coach Libor Zábranský since the start of the season, disagreed with that assessment. "I don't agree that Pardubice controlled the game. It was a very high-quality match, and either team could have won it," he stressed.

How the score changed

Kometa took the ice without another assistant coach, Martin Erat, who has temporarily returned to North America to be with his family, and again reshuffled the lineup noticeably compared to Friday's win in Olomouc. After two straight wins with Slovak goaltender Eugen Rabčan between the pipes, the Brno side again started with Stezka in goal, while defenceman Stanislav Svozil was left out of the lineup once more, as he was in the first two rounds.

The game, played in front of a nearly full Winning Group Aréna, was full of twists: the hosts went up 1:0, the visitors turned it around to lead 2:1, but Kometa hit back to reclaim a slim lead. Sedlák tied it up in the 47th minute, and then, during a home power play, Pardubice forward Jan Mandát intercepted a Pospíšil pass in the neutral zone and beat Stezka on a breakaway to put Pardubice ahead 4:3. Late in the game, Ondřej Mikliš sealed the visitors' win with an empty-net goal.

"That was the turning point of the match. Unfortunately, instead of settling it in our favour, we let Pardubice convert their power play," Pokorný lamented.

The Zohorna brothers

Even so, Kometa proved a match for the reigning champions. "We need to be smarter in certain moments of the game. Sometimes we get caught in the neutral zone and the opponent comes out three-on-two. We're building our game gradually — the loss stings a bit, but in places we were slightly the better team," said Kometa forward Hynek Zohorna, who picked up his first points of the season in his fifth game. Against Pardubice he played on the top line alongside Lane and Pospíšil, set up the match's opening goal and tied the score himself at 2:2. Before this game, the 36-year-old forward hadn't played a single preseason game.

"I had a minor injury over the summer, but I managed to recover in time for the season and I feel great," Zohorna said.

His brother Tomáš, two years his senior, played on Kometa's fourth line and skated in his 700th Extraliga career game. "It's great, especially when you think about what we've been through. He's got 700 Extraliga games plus seven years abroad, so all told that could add up to 1,200 games. I don't know if I'll reach that mark myself, but it's good motivation," the younger of the Zohorna brothers, Hynek, concluded.

After five rounds, Kometa sits eighth in the Extraliga table.

Around Prague, based on reporting by sport.cz