- Both teams won their openers on Thursday night
- This is Pilsen's first CHL game against a Finnish opponent
- JYP beat two Czech teams in the CHL playoffs last year
After winning their first games on Thursday night, Pilsen and JYP will now face off on Saturday afternoon, with the winner holding top spot in the group after Game Day 2, putting them in good shape to advance.
After a rather disappointing CHL debut in 2016/17, where they fell to HC Lugano in the Round of 32, Pilsen got some level of satisfaction in this year’s opener. Two goals by newcomer Vojtěch Němec gave Pilsen a 3-2 home victory over that same Lugano squad, and will now try to make it two home wins in a row. This will be the first time that Pilsen has faced a Finnish team in a high-level European competition.
“I think it will be much harder, much faster, because Finnish hockey is really fast. But they’ll play their hockey and we want to focus on our hockey and play our game.”Vojtěch Němec (Forward, HC Pilsen)
JYP got the start they wanted in Banská Bystrica, starting their title defence with a 6-1 win thanks to two-point efforts from Juha-Pekka Hytönen, Juuso Vainio and David Tomášek. Tomášek just joined JYP after playing the last three seasons in the Czech Extraliga with Dynamo Pardubice, so Pilsen fans should be familiar with him. In their path to the title last year, JYP did well in the Czech Republic, beating Kometa Brno in the Quarter-Finals and Oceláři Třinec in the Semis.
“Pilsen are a very high-quality team, an interesting opponent and a wonderful city. Their fanatical home crowd will make it a tough place to play.”Lauri Merikivi (Head Coach, JYP Jyväskylä)
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