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'Wounded' Skalica visiting Banska Bistrica

The visiting team lost point unexpectedly in the first round defeat against Martin home, they didn't use the many attempts they had and payed the price to it. Goaltender Kalemba was great for Banska

We already warned that Banska Bistrica will know how to punish any team that underestimates them. Pištan were the one to see this is the truth. They started the match badly, Banska scored in third minute already, then in 14th minute again. But, the youngest team in the Extraliga couldn't keep up till the end. They conceded two goals, and another one in the extra time. Coach Vladimir Orszagh still criticized his team even though they managed to play a draw against the team that played the role of favorite:

- We opened the game very good, but the just stopped then. We weren't active thus enabling our rivals to get a grip - said coach Orszagh after the match.


Young Banska defense allows striking 43 attempts to a team that is not even that offensive, but they were lucky to have Kalemba on the goal. He stopped 40 attempts, which is 93,03% of saves. First two defensive lines did a good job, they conceded goals with third and fourth line of defense. Furthermore, they lacked discipline having been sent off 6 times, which caused one goal but penalty killing of 83,3 % (5/6) is not bad at all.


Banska displayed active hockey in that game - just like the one they played in the preparation period, but it was declining by the end of the match. Only one point can be disappointing in the end since they had a two goal lead, but they were not the superior team for the most part f the game and have Kalemba to thank for for the one point.


They will try to win home, playing against wounded Skalica. They unexpectedly lost home in the opening game of the season to a weaker Martin. They were the dominant team in that match, had 14 more attempts (36-22), but visiting team goaltender Šurek drove them insane with his saves. 


They managed to surprise him once with a player extra. They should work on that aspect of their game since they used only one of six extra player opportunities, and even conceded a goal in those moments. Their penalty killing was not good either - they conceded one goal out of four penalties (75%).


- We took the lead quickly, but they equalized not long after. Second period decided - we couldn't score even though some attempt were really good. We are not happy with the final score - said coach Tutek.


Hockey is a team sport, but individual players often decide the matches. Skalica lost one of those players when their legend Palffy left. He shuold be replaced by Kuhl, one of the best scorers in the history of Extraliga, but he will clearly need time which was obvious when coach Turek put him in the fourth defense line. 


- Our opponent didn't surprise us, we did good. In fact, they didn't play much throughout the match, hardly had any attempts ana managed to score twice. Those goals were accidental. We played well and should have won -said their forward Stieler. It was surprising their match with Martin ended with only three goals since more goals are usually scored in their matches.


- We conceded a lot of goals in the last preparation period matches, but didn't work on our defense. We have to improve realization of our attempts. That was our greatest problem against Martin. If we do that, we'll be just fine - says Stieler.

The high odds for Skalica to go over 2.5 goals (in my opinion) are a direct effect of their poor result from the first round. The one goal they scored against Martin is surely not a realistic indication of capability of the team. In that duel they had lots of chances they did not turn into goals, but I think that we should not expect them to miss as much in every round. Banska kept Piestany under that margin in the away match. They conceded only 2 goals in the regular part of the game and goalkeeper Kalembo was great on goal. I do not have a lot of respect for a defense that let Piestany, which is known as a defensive team, take 43 shots on goal. Clearly there are a lot of holes in their game. Skalica is much better playing offence than Piestany and they should take advantage of this fact even if Kalemo has another good performance. I do not want to consider the last season's results as a reference because in the first part of the season the boys from Banska Bystrica had some experienced NHL players in their team while this year they have a young and inexperienced team.