Chalupa was happy that he helped Hradec Králové to succeed when he returned to the Hradec Králové lineup

Update: 24.03.2023 22:33

Liberec – For the first time since the end of the regular season, striker Matěj Chalupa got a chance in the lineup of Hradec Králové hockey players, and with a goal and an assist he immediately contributed to the victory in the fourth duel of the extra league quarterfinals in Liberec 2:1. This helped Mountfield come within one win of reaching the semi-finals for the third time in their history, following on from 2017 and 2018.

“Team points are more important. If I could contribute to the win, then only good,” said Chalupa to journalists, who took a post on the match roster instead of captain Radek Smoleňák. And he immediately moved into the first attack towards Lukáš Cingeľ and Jakub Lv.

He praised that the support of the team made it easier for him to return to the lineup for the first time since March 5. “There’s no time to be nervous. I jumped in with such experienced fighters as Cingy and Lvíček, so I actually had it easy,” Chalupa smiled.

He scored an assist just after 46 seconds when Canadian Christophe Lalancette made a breakthrough after a solo move. “I threw it to his side, I went to substitute, I sat down and it was in the goal. I didn’t see it at all,” said Chalupa.

In the 44th minute, he made it 2-0 when he swept the puck into the empty net after Bohumil Janek’s shot was touched by Aleš Jergle. Mountfield coach Tomáš Martinec said with a smile after the match that he had put Chalupa in the game with the task of scoring a goal. “I also received such instructions. But it was more about playing my game and following the instructions well. I’m really glad that it went down there. Now we have to forget about it and focus on the next match,” said Chalupa.

Although Liberec reduced the score in the 53rd minute, the East Bohemians defended their narrow lead. “The pressure was very high, but luckily we managed it. Machy (Matěj Machovský) caught excellently. Just like yesterday, so a big thank you goes to him. We generally played well in five forwards and backwards, responsibly, we had a small gap there, but we took care of it,” stated Chalupa.

According to him, it can be seen that Hradec has more strength. “They already played in the preliminaries, they had tough matches with Pilsen. Also, as we play a lot of skating hockey, they might lose their strength. But we mustn’t look at that, we have to focus on ourselves and take it on Sunday,” he pointed out Cottage.

He warns that one cannot be complacent. “We mustn’t accept that it’s 3-1. We have to go into the match as if it’s 0-0 and play like we did today. It would be great to finish in front of the home fans, they supported us here today and yesterday fantastically, so it belongs to them thank you very much,” added Chalupa, who returned to Hradec Králové from Litvínov at the end of January.