Prague Sparta captain escapes punishment for tripping rival

In a fifth-round Czech Extraliga hockey match between Prague’s Sparta and Karlovy Vary, home captain Chlapík deliberately tripped visiting forward Bambula, but the officials handed out no penalty for the play. The decision infuriated Karlovy Vary coach Pavel Patera, who berated the referee right there on the ice.

Contentious trip in the 28th minute

The incident happened as Bambula skated slowly backwards toward Chlapík. “I saw he was coming at me backwards. I’m not going to give way to anyone. He simply ran into me. I noticed him at the last moment and stumbled. That’s about all I can say,” Sparta’s captain said, giving his side of the story.

The replay, however, clearly shows the home captain consciously and deliberately sticking his leg out into his opponent’s path. The visiting forward apparently didn’t see the player closing in and fell uncontrollably after the contact. He lay on the ice in pain for a while before getting up and continuing the game.

Coach argued with the referee on the ice

For Chlapík, the episode went entirely unpunished, which didn’t sit well with the Karlovy Vary coach. During a commercial break, Patera walked up to the head referee and said: “He’s a smart player. He could see he was skating backwards.” The referee pushed back: “The way we saw it, he was skating past and the other guy caught his left leg. It’s not like he stuck his leg out on purpose.”

Patera wouldn’t let it go: “Guys, that’s a trick. But on his part, not yours,” the coach joked, and both men smiled. “You could get hurt doing that,” he added pointedly. The referee stood his ground: “By our standards that’s not worth a major penalty. More like a two-minute call, not something we’d send to a five-minute review.”

In doing so, the referee effectively admitted that the play involved at least a minor tripping penalty. Had the officials classified the hit as a check from behind, they would have had to automatically eject the player for the rest of the game — hockey rules define that infraction as a play in which a player uses his leg to knock or sweep an opponent’s legs out from behind, and Chlapík’s action fit that description quite well.

The visiting coach was also asked about the episode at the post-match press conference but declined to comment: “I don’t want to discuss it. I just had a word with the referee.”

Chlapík faces suspension

Although the Sparta captain went unpunished in the game itself, his hit on Bambula could still be taken up by the disciplinary committee, now headed by new chief Radim Bičánek. For such an infraction, the Prague club’s leader faces a two-to-five-match suspension.

In the third period, the officials let another dangerous moment slide: home player Marek Pysyk caught visiting forward Haralds Egle with a high stick, drawing blood on the Latvian forward’s face. With just under eight minutes left in the game, Karlovy Vary should have been awarded a four-minute power play, but never got it. Despite that, the visitors held on to their narrow lead and carried three hugely valuable points out of the O2 Arena.

Around Prague, based on reporting by sport.cz