“It’s a fantastic feeling. It was a boys’ battle between two quality teams. The Comet was able to close our one-game lead twice in the series. She played hard and fought. But we didn’t allow her to do it the third time,” the 34-year-old Mueller relished.
He scored the decisive goal, which sent Vítkovické to the semi-finals, when he was outnumbered. It was the first ever power play used by the Ostrava team in the quarter-final series. “We didn’t do as well as we would have imagined. So I thought it was about time we finally broke the curse. Succeeded. We still stuck to our power play system. It was only a matter of time before it fell to us,” smiled a happy Mueller.
Paradoxically, Petr Holík was sitting on the penalty bench, next to whom the American gunner started in the Komety’s elite attacking formation last season. “Petr never fouled much. As I know him, he is terribly sorry that we punished him with the winning goal just because he was sent off. But I’m on the other side now, so I’m really glad we got this chance to end the series. I am proud of our team for making it through Brno. We managed it, and now we will do our best to succeed in the semi-finals as well,” he vowed.
While in the regular part of the extra league, Mueller received a huge ovation from Kometa fans during the match against Vítkovice in Brno, this time he had to listen to whistles and a lot of curses and insults. “In the fall, I was greeted with applause in Brno, which was beautiful. After all, I wore the Komety jersey for four beautiful years. I will remember them for the rest of my life. Now the Kometa fans must have been upset that I was celebrating a goal. For them, elimination is understandably a big disappointment. So now I could hardly expect him to praise me. But it was about advancing to the next round of the playoffs, and now I have my club and a new home in Ostrava,” he emphasized.
The Vítkovic hockey players’ opponent in the semi-finals will be either Hradec Králové or Sparta. “I don’t choose. In any case, we will come across an extremely high-quality team. We will definitely have to give everything on the ice again,” realizes Mueller. According to him, advancing to the semifinals is already a big event for the Ostrava club. “We have climbed the first hill so far, and now we would like to conquer the second one as well. I believe that we will get together physically and healthily and we will fight with all our strength in the final,” he plans.
