Lukas Pech had more points in this CHL season than his two previous campaigns combined. After Tuesday night's Final, he spoke about the disappointment of losing, but is also proud of what Sparta Pragu accomplished as a team.

by Jakub Borovsky

GOTHENBURG – They fought until the very end of the CHL Final, and in the third period Sparta Prague scored the tying goal and pushed hard for the winner. However, the game went to overtime and ultimately the home team, Frolunda Gothenburg, prevailed to repeat as champions. 

One of Sparta's players that was pushing hard for the fourth goal that never game was Lukas Pech. Pech had an assist on the team's third goal and finished the competition with 13 points (6+7) in 13 games. That total led Sparta and was only one point behind Frolunda's Joel Lundqvist and Casey Wellman for the overall CHL scoring title. Pech also finished second to Lundqvist in MVP voting. But the thing that bothers Pech right now is finishing second as a team – because they were so close.

Lukas, at this moment you are probably very disappointed, but overall, can you be satisfied with what you accomplished in the CHL?

“Of course we're disappointed because we wanted to win. We came so far, so it's a shame we didn't finish it. For me, this would have been the biggest success in club competition, because we proved ourselves internationally. As for the whole season, it was great. We played fantastic hockey against some great teams. Overall, I think we have to be proud of ourselves, but it's just too bad about how the last game finished.”

It seemed like they were three different games over three periods. 

“Yeah, the first period was very balanced. It went back and forth a lot, and we had a lot of penalties. The second period we were a bit weaker, we let Frolunda push us, and we only had a couple of chances. We also gave up the 3-2 goal. Then, as they say, we had our backs to the wall, so we went all out in the third period – we battled hard. We played well with the puck and we were strong in front of their net – we got players there and that's how we got the tying goal.”

At the end of the third period you were really pressing them. Did you think you could get the decisive goal? 

“Well unfortunately it didn't happen, even though we had a lot of chances and maybe we also had the upper hand. We pressured Frolunda and we didn't let them out of the zone. We had several opportunities to score the winning goal, which unfortunately didn't happen. Finally, the game went into overtime, which is always a lottery and unfortunately it didn't go our way.”

You had one good chance in particular. How do you remember it? 

“I was close, but the puck was jumping, so I couldn't get a handle on it – it just skipped under my stick. I reached out and I wanted to sweep it in, but the Frolunda player was in the way, so I couldn't finish it. It's too bad – it was close. I maybe could have reacted better, but we can't do anything about that now.”

Do you think Frolunda was the toughest opponent you've faced this season?

“They played well, but I don't think they were unbeatable. I don't want to compare them against other teams we've played. Of course, they were one of the strongest, but I think we've also had other quality opponents that we absolutely surprised.”

What do you think of 3-on-3 overtime? Is it a good way to decide a championship? 

“We can argue whether it's better to do it this way or if a penalty shootout would be better . . . but this is the way it's set up and we knew that going in. If we'd scored, we'd all be thrilled with it, but we got scored on, so that's that. It's too bad, but I think we did a good job.”