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Hockey playoffs becoming physical affair

Underdogs benefit from uneven reffing

By František Bouc
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
April 9th, 2008 issue

Spirits are high these days in the country’s top-flight ice hockey league, the Extraliga.
The league’s best-of-seven championship series features the playoff dark horse HC Energie Karlovy Vary against Slavia Praha, which has only recently emerged as a hockey power. Karlovy Vary is bidding for its first title, while Slavia won its first championship in 2003.
Both teams defied expectations in reaching the finals. In the semifinals, Slavia outplayed Liberec while Karlovy Vary upset regular season champs České Budějovice. Both series extended the full seven games.
Not everyone in the league is feeling great about the playoffs, though. Whether it is sour grapes or legitimate gripes, both teams on the wrong side of the semifinals are blaming the same cause for their defeat: the referees.
Liberec and České Budějovice complained during and after the semifinals that controversial and uneven penalty calls delivered a major blow to their efforts.
“Mistakes by referees in the second semifinal game in Prague significantly contributed to our defeat in that game,” said Liberec player Andrej Podkonický. “And, given it was such an equal series, it could well have been the pivotal moment of the semifinals.”
České Budějovice had similar complaints, though in contrast to Liberec, Jaromír Látal, České Budějovice’s sports manager, said the referees were equanimous in their incompetence, making controversial calls against both teams.
“They began refereeing in the playoffs in a completely different manner than in the regular season. No one knew what to do and what to expect,” he said.
Slavia defenseman Tomáš Žižka agreed that the refs were a factor.
“Honestly, we don’t know what we can do on the ice, the referees are so difficult to read this season,” he said.
Pavel Richter, a former national team player and now a hockey commentator, said the referees have been the weakest part of the playoffs.
“It’s obvious that players and teams are fighting even harder in the playoffs and that the game is even more physical than in the league’s regular season,” he said. “It’s up to the referees to set the bar and keep it even throughout the games — not changing their criteria between games or even between periods.”
Some calls during the playoffs have been controversial, admitted Pavel Halas, chairman of the referees’ committee. But referees should not be a factor in the finals, as they have been instructed to let the game flow smoothly, only penalizing obvious fouls, he said.
Expect physicality in the finals no matter how many penalties are called, said Slavia head coach Vladimír Růžička.
“Now that the season has reached its peak, the players have to fight to their limits. The hockey must simply hurt,” he said.
The finals started with two games in Prague April 4 and 5, and headed to Karlovy Vary April 8 and 9 with the series tied 1-1. The last three games, if necessary, are to be played April 12 in Prague, April 14 in Karlovy Vary and April 16 in Prague.

František Bouc can be reached at fbouc@praguepost.com


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