Slovan’s hockey players broke their championship dream on him, the people of Košice were trembling until the last moment so that he would let something go.
Photo: Profimedia
Stanislav Škorvánek in the national team jersey.
Although the Michaloviec hockey players are absent from this year’s extraleague final, perhaps the biggest star of the playoffs is called Stanislav Škorvánek.
A goalkeeper who earned a chance to fight for the World Cup with his performances.
His story is countless. He started with hockey in Žilina, then it was Trnava, Bardejov, Nové Zámky, Detva, Prešov, Košice, Humenné, but he did not find his place anywhere. He caught little, sat a lot. And the years were increasing.
However, the 2022/2023 season changed everything. Škorvánek came to Michaloviec and shot to hockey heights.
Father’s firm hand
The goalkeeper’s life is not easy. Goalkeepers also tend to say that finding a place in the team among skaters is not such a big science – after all, there are plenty of places in four attacks. However, only one can catch pucks.
Such was Škorvánek’s lot at first. Wherever he came, he covered his back. Each time to someone more experienced.
“When you are a substitute for years, then you have a hard time. He was good before, but he didn’t have a chance to mature. Only now, when he finally got a proper chance,” evaluates the current Zemplin star, her Michalov teammate Jakub Suja.
“Among goalkeepers, only the most talented get a chance at an early age,” adds Rastislav Staňa, world champion from Gothenburg 2002.
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As if the 27-year-old from Žilina lacks talent, he certainly doesn’t, because those who know him say that he has already taken his place among the juniors.
“He was a year younger, once I caught, then he again. Even then, however, it was clear that he stood out. After all, he was catching in games with guys a year older. I dare say that in the 18th grade he was one of the leading goalkeepers in Slovakia. Where he is today does not surprise me at all,” Peter Buliš, a former goalkeeper, tells Športweb. He once shared a place in the Žilina goal with Škorvánek.
His growth is also due to his father, also Stanislav, who played ten seasons in the Slovak extra league. He allegedly told his son several times that he had chosen the worst hockey position.
“Dad had a firm hand over him. In addition, Stano was always taller, faster and more flexible. With good insight into the game. Already in the beginning, he was calm and nothing disturbed him,” describes Buliš.
When you ask the people who accompanied him during his career about Škorvánek, most of them will tell you that he is a good guy even when he is uncomfortable. When he loses, he doesn’t throw his hockey stick, he doesn’t point fingers, he says he takes everything with humility and a cool head. “Not every goalkeeper is like that,” quips Suja.
“Even with coach Kúdelko, we sometimes have our heads over him. He never makes a scene, after a winning match he taps his paw with us, he smiles, but he doesn’t jump three somersaults backwards. His corners play with every trick, but he radiates calmness and that’s when everyone in the team he says, ‘you coconut, you can really go far with a goalkeeper like that’.
On one side he is different, on the other he is a classic goalkeeper. He too has his own world, he can also look into himself and when he concentrates on something important, he doesn’t notice his surroundings. At the same time, it does not have great demands.
“Custodian Marek Jenčík once mentioned to me that he has experienced various goalkeepers, including those with national team experience, but that when he asks Stan if he needs anything, the answer is almost always the same: nothing, everything is fine. No clean concrete, no dry trap, really doesn’t solve anything. In this, it’s such a goalkeeper’s exception,” adds Suja.
