After the first leg of the 2019/20 Champions Hockey League Semi-Finals are complete, only one game remains for four teams to compete for a spot in the Grand Final, and in the first leg in Stockholm, The last team remaining outside of the Czech Republic skated away with a victory heading back to home ice.
Mountfield HK, who previously haven’t been able to get of the Group Stage, took a 3-1 victory over Djurgården Stockholm in the first leg, returning to home ice next week looking to defend a two-goal lead and secure their place in the final.
“We’re definitely happy to bring a win back home from Stockholm.” Mountfield forward Matěj Chalupa said following the victory. “This will give us more calmness in the return leg for sure.”
Despite conceding early after Gustav Possler scored to put the hosts ahead, Mountfield had a good response to concede the opening goal, and from there never looked back. “We answered their opening goal quickly, that was important," he said. "If we had to wait until the second period or even longer, who knows how the game would have finished. But we answered almost immediately and then we did the rest.”
With the score tied at one apiece, Chalupa had a chance to put his team ahead, but on reflection feels he could have passed to Radek Smoleňák to have more of a chance of grabbing the go-ahead goal, but in the end it didn’t matter too much, as early in the second period he managed to find the back of the net anyway.
“It was almost identical to my goal against Olomouc in the Czech Extraliga," added for the forward. “At first I wanted to shoot, but in the end I moved to my backhand and put it on net through the goalie's five-hole. Even with the lead, we didn’t change anything, we still kept chasing them.”
Mountfield goalie Marek Mazanec has been a huge part of their journey to the Semi-Finals, however he didn’t have too much to do in the second period thanks to the help he had out in front.
“Everyone knows that Swedish teams are very strong with the puck. They keep the rotation going. It doesn’t matter if it’s a defenceman or a forward on the blueline," said the netminder after the game. "But we only allowed them three shots in the second period, we’re happy about the way we did overall and got the win.”
With a two-goal lead heading into the return leg, it’s still going to take a big effort by Mountfield to book their place in the Final, and Chalupa and his team know that the goal-scoring can’t stop here. “A two-goal cushion is much better than a draw or something close, we hope to score some more goals in Hradec Králové," concluded the 21-year-old. "I think we’re going to stick to our system, we want to chase them and once they control the puck, we need to hold the neutral zone and wait for their mistakes. We probably won’t change much.”