Ocelaři Třinec forward Martin Adamský was the hero in a pre-season tournament that his club hosted in its brand-new arena. Coming up next for Adamský, Třinec and Werk Arena will be the opening night of the Champions Hockey League on Thursday.

by Daniel Ježek

TŘINEC - The weekend before the start of the Champions Hockey League, three CHL clubs - Vítkovice Steel, HC Košice and host Oceláři Třinec - along with KHL club Severstal Cherepovets played in the Steel Cup. The venue was the brand-new Werk Arena in Třinec and it was the host team that emerged victorious, eeking out a win over Cherepovets in the last game.

"Every boss who owns a hockey team wants victories. We were under a lot of pressure, we have new stadium and Mr. Moder wants those wins as well," said forward Martin Adamsky after the last game.

Martin, you've played three games within the Steel Cup. Was the game with Cherepovets the hardest?

We knew that Cherepovets would be tough because they won their first two games. Teams from the KHL are very good; we've already played against Minsk and it was a hard game. We knew that it wouldn't be easy.

You were down by two goals part way through but you came out the winner.

Yeah, it wasn't going well for us, we were losing 3-1. Near the end we ere playing with three lines and we managed to win. But it was a bit obvious that Cherepovets was a bit tired. After all, they've played three games in three days.

Was it visible on them?

Maybe a little bit. They brought here four or five lines, so they definitely had some depth. But it's very difficult to play three games in a row, so it certainly took a toll on them.

You scored the winning goal in the last minute. Can you describe it?

My goal was a bit accidental, but I always say that the game has 60 minutes and that you should always play till the very end.

You lost the very first game of the tournament to Vítkovice. Do you regret that?

We certainly regret that. We had a bad finish and Vítkovice scored a goal in the last minute. After that game we sat at the room, talked about our play and started to concentrate on the next games. We won both of them, but that loss to Vítkovice could have cost us the trophy.

After the Steel Cup you are going to start playing competitive games. What do you have to improve before the start of CHL?

We have to improve our defensive play. We're not able to stay in our positions, we are moving around too much in the zone. We've given up a lot of unnecessary goals, mainly from the area in front of the net. We still have a lot of work to do before the Champion Hockey League starts. However, I think that we are very strong offensively.

What are your expectations about the CHL?

Honestly, I don't know what to expect from the Champion Hockey League. But I am looking forward to play against teams from different European leagues. So far we've only played with Czech or Slovak teams. It's another good test before the start of the Extraliga, playing against teams even better than before. Those games will be awesome.