Friboug host Kosice with score even 

Fribourg-Gotteron and HC Kosice will decide their Round of 32 set in Switzerland after drawing 1-1 in eastern Slovakia. As is often the case, the team which was home in the first game is left to lament not winning, given the chances they had.  

“We played great for two periods and didn’t let them do anything,” Kosice forward Ladislav Nagy said afterwards. “We were excellent on defence and had several chances but they were also perfect on defence one-on-one and did not let us have the big chances. However, we are satisfied. We played a good game. It’s too bad we allowed a goal with seven minutes left and didn’t win. But never mind, next week we go to Fribourg and will try to be successful there.”

Friboug head coach Larry Huras said, “I am really happy that it finished 1-1. I knew that Kosice would come out very strong. They played very well throughout the game, and their goalie played really great.” 

Miroslav Kopriva, who made saves in goal for Kosice, said, “The 1-1 score means there is still something to fight for. I hope that when we analyse the game, discuss how we skated and defended, we’ll see that we have a great chance for success next week.” 

The only goal that Kopriva allowed was to Friboug top scorer Roman Cervenka. The two Czechs are former teammates, and prior to the goal Kopriva had made a couple of great saves on Cervenka. 

“We know each other really well,” the goalie said. “We played together with Slavia Prague. He is a fantastic player. He scored against me, the puck rebound to him and he shot into the empty net.”

Cervenka replied, “The Kosice goalie played well. Unfortunately, we failed to score more goals. Now the score is 1-1, which is not bad.”

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