“It happened like this,” smiles Vrána. “At thirty-four years old, Erik (Hrňa) is the youngest in the line, that’s enough to think about. But the boys and I know each other, we just try to support the team, do our job and be part of the team . We hold on to the puck, try to put the opponent under pressure here and there and play well at the back. We jump in as needed, that’s our task,” described the captain from Třinec.
In the NHL team, it used to be the case that the fourth line was dominated by brawlers or players who tried to poison the opponent as much as possible. However, the same cannot be said about the formation that Vrána leads.
“We are not a classic checking line, nor do we have the characters for it. But we don’t collect the pucks either, we won’t get there again with age,” he laughed. “But we try to play simply, purposefully. Finish fights. It would be great to score a goal, but the main thing is not to score.” explained the five-time extraleague medalist.
Photo: Vladimír Pryček, CTK
Třinec hockey players (from left) Ondřej Kacetl, Martin Marinčin, Adam Smith, Andrej Nestrašil and Martin Růžička celebrate their third final victory.
He has two silvers with Vítkovice, three golds with Třinec. And after the third win over Hradec Králové in the final, the fourth title in a row is within reach. “We have taken another step, but there is one more to take. We have to keep our feet on the ground and go into the fourth game better than we did today, because the start was not quite optimal. We all know that Hradec will not leave us anything for free here and will fly into it again like today. We have to prepare for the next battle,” reminded the native of Šternberk.
Třinec beat Sparta in the quarter-finals in six games, progressing over Pardubice in the semi-finals was won only in the seventh match. But the finals are coming out great for him so far. He won both games in eastern Bohemia, but again played responsibly in front of his own fans and with an emphasis on honest defense. Just no fooling around.
“Maybe we had somewhere behind that we won both games there, but the boys are, and it was confirmed today, very experienced here. Almost everyone has played a lot of these games and knows what we can afford. That’s also why we were able to keep it after Marko’s (Daňo) goal,” explained Vrána.
Třineck’s captain once again praised goalkeeper Ondřej Kacetl, who scored his third clean sheet in the current playoff. “Káca was big today! He had a lot of big saves, the guys sacrificed a lot of shots at the end, it has to look like that in the next match as well. We have to prepare for it as if it were just another game. We can’t go into this with a three-nil lead and it’s going to be easy. Hradec will fly into it and tomorrow it will be a big fight again,” pointed out Vrána, who extended his contract for another season during the final in Třinec.
2023-04-23 09:30:53
#step #needed #emphasized #captain #Vrána #goal #Sport.cz
