For the second year in a row, HC Kosice won the Slovak Extraliga regular season by a decisive margin. Now, they hope to repeat at playoff champions as well. Their biggest challengers will again be HK Nitra, who have a good chance at joining Kosice in next year's Champions Hockey League.
by Derek O'Brien
In 2013–14, HC Kosice finished first place in the Slovak Extraliga regular season by 12 points ahead of their nearest competitor, HK Nitra, then went on to become playoff champions as well by beating Nitra in seven games to qualify for this season's Champions Hockey League. This year they again topped the regular season standings by a healthy margin over Nitra – 13 points this time.
That means that Kosice will be returning to the CHL in 2015–16. But who will be joining them? That will be for the playoffs to decide, as the other C-License will go to the playoff champion. If Kosice again manage to do the double, it will be Nitra who will join them next year in Europe's highest club competition.
| # | Club | GP | W | OW | OL | L | GF–GA | Pts |
| 1 | HC Košice | 56 | 35 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 166–105 | 123 |
| 2 | HK Nitra | 56 | 30 | 7 | 6 | 13 | 201–141 | 110 |
| 3 | HC '05 Banská Bystrica | 56 | 29 | 6 | 7 | 14 | 188–142 | 106 |
| 4 | HKM Zvolen | 56 | 28 | 4 | 7 | 17 | 175–161 | 99 |
| 5 | HK Poprad | 56 | 27 | 8 | 1 | 20 | 168–124 | 98 |
| 6 | HK Dukla Trenčín | 56 | 21 | 11 | 3 | 21 | 141–120 | 88 |
| 7 | MHC Martin | 56 | 17 | 6 | 10 | 23 | 140–157 | 73 |
| 8 | ŠHK 37 Piešťany | 56 | 17 | 5 | 6 | 28 | 148–201 | 67 |
| 9 | HK 36 Skalica | 56 | 14 | 2 | 6 | 34 | 136–217 | 52 |
| 10 | MsHK Žilina | 56 | 12 | 2 | 7 | 35 | 128–184 | 47 |
| HK Orange 20 | 20 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 17 | 29–68 | 7 |
As mentioned, Kosice are the defending champions and are heavy favourites to repeat. Despite easily winning the regular season, their offence only ranked fifth in the league and their leading scorer, Tibor Kutalek, was ranked 10th with 46 points (23 + 23). However, their defence was by far the best in the league – surrendering only 105 goals in 56 games – and that's often what it takes to win in the playoffs. Marcel Melichercik and Alexandr Hylak split the duties down the middle – they were the only two goalies in the league with goals-against averages under 2.00 (1.78 and 1.83) and were ranked second and third in save percentage (93.08 and 93.27). Melichercik should get the bulk of the post-season work, but the team has faith in both.
Their quarter-final opponents are SHK 37 Piestany, who are ranked sixth in offence, just behind Kosice, but ninth defensively in the 10-team league. Kosice took five out of six regular-season games between the two teams, and a Piestany victory in this series would be a huge upset.
Second-placed Nitra, who boasted the league's top offence in the regular season, take on seventh-seeded MHC Martin. Nitra were the only team in the league top 200 goals scored with 201, and, not surprisingly, had the league scoring champion on their roster. Roman Tomanek topped all Extraliga scorers with 66 points (29 + 37) while the team's next best scorer, 42-year-old NHL veteran Jozef Stumpel, was fourth in the league with 55 (23 + 32). Martin's top scorer, Jaroslav Markovic, was tied for fifth place with 54 points (22 + 32). Overall, though, the team was eighth in offence, seventh in defence, and it would be a surprise if they advance to the semi-finals.
Nitra edged out HC '05 Banska Bystrica for the coveted second spot in the standings, so BB will have to win the national championship outright to qualify for a C-License. That won't be easy, however, as they face tricky opponents right away in Dukla Trencin. Banska Bystrica had the league's second-best offence and were led in scoring by Petr Kafta's 54 points (29 + 25), tied with Markovic. Trencin, however, surrendered 22 fewer goals than BB this season and, in fact, had the league's second-best defence after Kosice. Branislav Konrad was the league's top goaltender this year, turning in a 2.00 goal-against average and a league-leading 93.38 save percentage, while appearing in 51 of his team's 56 games. Not surprisingly, he's also played for the Slovakian national team this year, and he will be relied upon heavily Trencin hope to go anywhere in the playoffs.
Perhaps the toughest series of all to call is the four-five match-up between HKM Zvolen and HK Poprad. Zvolen finished only one point higher than Poprad in the standings, and will be a clash of Zvolen's offence against Poprad's defence. Zvolen have the league leaders in goals and assists – Radovan Pulis (30 + 26 = 56) and Kamil Brabanec (17 + 46 = 63) – who were also second and third in overall points. For Poprad, Matus Kostur was the busiest goalie in the league, appearing in 54 games. He was also one of the most effective, with a 2.11 goals-against average and 92.00 save percentage.
See the complete playoff schedule and up-to-date results here at the Hockey Slovakia website.