Online: Sparta – Team Canada 0:0, Davos (Switzerland) – Spengler Cup
Squad of HC Sparta Prague
Kořenář (Kovář) – Krutil, Moravčík, Mikliš, Jandus, Böhm, Tomek – Forman, Sobotka, Řepík – Buchtele, D. Vitouch, Safin – Konečný, Thorell, Dvořáček – Simon, Přibyl, M. Vitouch
Coach: Miloš Hořava
Team Canada lineup
Hutchinson (Hughes) – Gregoire, Connauton, Brook, Paquette Bisson, Leduc, Kalynuk, Beaudin, Ang – Desharnais, Perlini, Winnik – Didomenico, Ennis, Quine – Connolly, Eakin, Carr – Scevior, Nash
Coach: Travis Green
Opening lineups:
HC Sparta Prague: Kořenář (Kovář) – Krutil, Moravčík, Mikliš, Jandus, Böhm, Tomek – Forman, Sobotka, Řepík – Buchtele, D. Vitouch, Safin – Konečný, Thorell, Dvořáček – Simon, Přibyl, M. Vitouch
Coach: Miloš Hořava
Team Canada: Hutchinson (Hughes) – Gregoire, Connauton, Brook, Paquette Bisson, Leduc, Kalynuk, Beaudin, Ang – Desharnais, Perlini, Winnik – Didomenico, Ennis, Quine – Connolly, Eakin, Carr – Scevior, Nash
Coach: Travis Green.
Team Canada will appear at the Spengler Cup as part of its regular participation after three years. The Canadians have a lot to build on, in the group of the mentioned 2019 year, they handled both Davos (5:1) and Třinec (4:1) confidently, securing the semi ahead of time. The Canadian players demonstrated an even more dominant run in the play-offs of the tournament, sweeping Finnish TPS Turku (6:0) in the semi-finals and Třinec again (4:0) in the finals, thus passing the elimination rounds without conceding a single goal. A team that consisted of the former outstanding forward of Arizona Shane Doan and which will be led by the coach at the tournament Travis Green offers several interesting names, in goal he will want to help his team to another triumph with an experienced goalkeeper Michael Hutchinson (137 starts in the NHL, in which the average success rate is 90.05%), the danger for the Spartan defense should be mainly represented by the forwards Tyler Ennis (700 games in the NHL, a record of 144+202 in them) a Cody Eakin (701 games in the NHL, including a record of 110+146).
Sparta was supposed to take part first in 2020 and then in 2021, but they were canceled due to the unfavorable epidemiological situation, this happened for the first time since 1956. Thus, the team from the main Czech metropolis returns to the tournament after twelve long years with its last participation in 2010. In their last participation, the Prague team failed in the group, first against the Russian St. Petersburg (1:4) and then also against the Swiss Servette (3:4). they just didn’t rise to the battle and lost 3:4 after extra time. The people of Prague enter this year’s tournament in a good mood, under the new coaches they were able to get out of the crisis at the beginning of the season and in the last eleven league games it was enough to reach the winning end. Sparta’s goalkeeper, in particular, will want to confirm his form from the top Czech competition at the Spengler Cup Jakub Kovarwho hasn’t let go of even a single disc behind his back for 196 minutes and 58 seconds.