Promotional celebrations of HC Slovan Bratislava hockey players Source: TASR / Martin Baumann BRATISLAVA – Slovan Bratislava hockey players have a challenging semi-final series against Košice (4: 3 for matches), but they want to use the joyful emotion from it in the final of the Kaufland playoff Tipos extra league against Nitra . After the triumph in the previous series, they were given a day off, and since Thursday they have been fully devoted to preparing for the fight for gold. Slovan and Nitra will compete against each other in the finals for the first time in the history of the highest competition. The people of Bratislava want to win their ninth extra-league title, which would make them independent of HC Košice in the number of championships. “Nothing easy awaits us, but we have to focus on our performance. We start at home, we have to go step by step,” said Slovana captain Michal Sersen. The Slavs entered the playoffs of 2022 as the winner of the basic part. Therefore, they have the advantage of the first home matches and, if necessary, the decisive one. On Wednesday, his players were free, from Thursday they were already preparing for the first duel on Friday. “We’ll talk something else and go for it. Everyone knows what’s going on. We have to watch a video and go for it,” Sersen added. Photo gallery (2) Source: TASR / Pavel Neubauer Slovan has not lost in the playoffs on home ice yet. Prešov beat him twice and Košice four times. He also benefited from the massive support of a crowd of ten thousand in the stands. “We are glad that it was sold out and now we have repaid the fans. I believe that they will be with us in the finals as well,” said Tomáš Zigo, the scorer of the decisive goal in the seventh semifinal match with Košice. However, the people of Bratislava had outages in the semifinal series, this happened especially after the people of Košice settled the unfavorable situation. They wanted to use “Momentum” in the seventh match as well, after a 2: 2 equalizer they pushed the Slavs for a while, but then the game leveled off and the extra time lasted only 61 seconds. “We have to learn from this. It turned out well for us, but we have to be careful because it may cost us a match in the future,” Sersen said. Celebrations must wait Slovana coach Andrej Podkonický, after a successful drama with “steelmakers”, said that the celebrations must wait. He didn’t even allow players a beer. Striker Zigo responded: “We will celebrate later. We still have some work to do. We all know what this is about, now we have to focus on it. We have to watch a video of our opponent’s game and see how it develops after the first matches.” For Slovan, this will be the eleventh final participation and the first after returning from the KHL. The last time he enjoyed the title was in 2012. He defeated Nitra five times this season, but coach Podkonický knows that this balance means nothing: “The players in the series with Košice have put a lot of energy into themselves. Now we have another challenging series ahead. Nitra is playing all year offensive hockey, its players go to the goal, which I think was missing in the semifinals. We have to be better in this. They have dangerous players like Buček, Holešinský or Krivošík. We have to prepare well. ” Author: © List Source: TASR