Růžička strengthened the winner of the regular season at the end of January from Hradec Králové, where he did not establish himself as the number one. For the first time, he got into a sharp match in the new jersey in Liberec, where he got the opportunity instead of Roman Will.
“I felt good. I’ve been here for a while now, and I’d like to thank all the cabin guys for making me feel so welcome. I’m enjoying it and it’s a great honor to be here with them. I also enjoyed the match, but unfortunately it’s very bitter at the end,” admitted the 26-year-old goalkeeper, who made 19 saves under Ještěd.
“I believed in myself, I think our communication at the back worked excellently. We gave an excellent performance for 40 minutes, but hockey is played for 60 minutes,” he added.
Photo: Vít Černý, CTK
The puck is behind the Pardubice goalkeeper Jan Růžička. Liberec took the lead.Photo: Vit Černý, CTK
Coincidentally, the last time he appeared in the top competition was also on the ice of the White Tigers. In January, he also lost against Mountfield under Ještěd, 1:3. “The positions in the team were completely different, but in the end, we goalkeepers have it very simple. When the puck drops, it’s just us and the puck and the mood of the team kind of goes beyond us. We are such a tiny team within a team. But it was a game like any other and I went into it thinking I wanted to give the boys the best possible chance to win. Unfortunately, it didn’t work,” Růžička compared.
The winner of the regular season paid for the start of the third period in Liberec, when he conceded three goals in 155 seconds and was ready to call “155”. We went into a four-minute deficit, Liberec took advantage of the first one right at the beginning, which gave them blood and unfortunately they converted the second one as well,” he assessed and praised the opponent.
“You can see that they are fighting for the top four and you could feel it from the first moment. They are raking for each other and we have no choice but to congratulate them.”
On the other hand, did Pardubice find it harder to find motivation as the already certain winner of the regular season? “In my opinion, it’s terribly treacherous that we have something in our pocket that we don’t have to bother with anymore. The hockey god is fair, and luck might not be on our side in the first series either. I think that the motivation to perform well and fight for the team should be the same in any situation,” he noted.
Pardubice now has two more duels – with Litvínov and on the ice of Hradec Králové. “It will be best to win both games so that the luck is on our side again, because it is bouncing back so far. We all have to give it one hundred percent and go into the game humbly, as if it were the seventh game of a tight playoff series,” he concluded.
