Hockey in numbers: Kladno successfully defended the extra league for the third time in a row Hokej.cz

As well as the individual extraleague playoff series, we will also look at the playoff between Kladno and Vsetín by looking at the numbers. The Knights saved themselves again in the extra league, how did their battle with the Wallachians look statistically?

In 2022, Kladno defeated Jihlava 4:1 on matches, last year they dealt with Zlín in a ratio of 4:0, and this year again without losing a match, they defended extra league membership in a duel with Vsetín. The participants of the Tipsport extra league for the 2024/25 season thus remain in the same composition as this year.

Since Jihlava, Zlín and Vsetín did not succeed, they remain the last successful challenger in the format of a series of four winning matches between the worst team of the extra league and the winner of the first league from 2012, Chomutov, who then defeated Mlada Boleslav in seven duels.

At the same time, compared to Jihlava or Zlín, Vsetín played the course of the Chance League playoffs this year. In total, they lost only three games in the entire playoff, and above all, they managed the final match with Zlín in five games, thus creating enough time for playoff preparation.

Kladno Knights vs. VHK ROBE Vsetín

While last year Kladno dominated the game against Zlín in every duel, Vsetín lightly teased the fans of the outsider in the series in the first match that it might not be such a difference this year. In fact, Vsetín handled the first duel more than well, created relatively interesting opportunities and, in addition, significantly outshot Kladno. According to the chances created, Vsetín’s win was expected in 58% of cases, against which was a recovered and obviously excellently prepared Adam Brízgala in the goal of Kladno.

The missed chance to catch the favorite by surprise Vsetín subsequently regretted doubly. Kladno flew into the second match like a hurricane and scored seven goals against their opponent during the first two periods. In addition to them, Kladno showed in this match who is apparently the better team and significantly outplayed Vsetín, when they had six highly dangerous shots, while Vsetín, on the other hand, had none…

However, after the playoff was moved to Brno, where Vsetín played home duels, the picture of the game changed again for the third match. And that in favor of the challenger from the first league, when Vsetín again pulled the long end of the rope in match number three. But the finish and perhaps the quality betrayed him when he didn’t use a single one of his eight high-danger shots, managed only twice in total and lost to Kladno 2:3 in a match where he had a 64% expected win.

In the fourth, and as it turned out, also the last game, the sides turned again and Kladno was the better team in the game. At the same time, Vsetín had several opportunities to break his opponent, he even led twice in the match, but in the end he broke his own neck during his own power play, when he scored the decisive goal of the tie

Matthias Philip

attacker, 23 years old