HC Kometa Brno

HC Kometa Brno
City Brno, Czech Republic
League Czech Extraliga
Founded 1953 (1953)
Home arena Hala Rondo (Capacity: 7,200)
Colours

blue, white

         
Owner(s) Czech Republic Libor Zábranský
Head coach Czech Republic Alois Hadamczik
Captain Czech Republic Leoš Čermák

Website
www.hc-kometa.cz

Club crest 1996-2012

HC Kometa Brno ("Comet" in English) is the second most successful ice hockey club in the Czech Republic with 11 Czechoslovak league championship titles (right behind HC Dukla Jihlava that holds 12 championship wins). Holding three European Cup titles, Kometa ranks as the most successful Czech club in international ice hockey.

History

Players and fans of Kometa during 2011 post-season friendly match.

The club was founded in 1953 as an army ice hockey club with the name Rudá hvězda Brno ("Red Star"). The majority of players were transferred from 2 hockey clubs in Brno (TJ Spartak Brno Zbrojovka and TJ Spartak GZ Královo Pole[1]). In 1962 the club changed its name to ZKL Brno (ZKL is abbreviation of "Ball Bearing Factory")[2] and stopped being an army team. In 1976 the name was changed to Zetor Brno. Shortly after revolution (1994), club changed its name to HC Kometa Brno. "Kometa" was the team's nickname since 1950's (opposite to official "Red Star") and the team was commonly referred to by this name since its beginnings.

In 1996 the team relegated from Czech Extraliga to the second highest ice hockey league – Czech 1. liga. For many years, the team struggled due to bad financing, multiple changes of owners and faced another relegation, which happened in 2001-2002 season. The club almost ceased to exist, played in the East division of the third highest Czech ice hockey league - 2. liga. By 2003-2004 season, it returned to 1. liga and began its little "renaissaince". In 2004, Kometa played its first playoffs since 1997, reached semifinals in 2008 and finals in 2009. On 1 April 2009, Kometa bought the licence for Czech Extraliga from another South Moravian club, HC Znojemští Orli. This club will now serve as a farm team for Brno.[3]

In March 2012, the team managed to defeat HC Sparta Praha, the winner of the 2011–12 Czech Extraliga regular season, and qualified for the playoff semifinals.[4] In the semifinals, they defeated HC Plzeň 1929, the runner-up of the regular season. Kometa lost the Czech Extraliga championship final to HC Pardubice in six games.[5]

Awards and trophies

History of the team name

Current players

Current roster for season 2012/2013[6]

Position#NameAcquired
G1 Marek Čiliak2013
G35 Jiří Trvaj2009
G83Martin Falter2012
D72 Lukáš Kozák2016
D32 Radim Bičánek2009
D6 Jozef Kováčik2011
D5 Tomáš Žižka2011
D71 Tomáš Malec2010
D68 Milan Hruška2011
D21 Filip Krejčiřík2012
D51 Jan Švrček2011
D48 Boris Valábik2012
D16 Juraj Valach2011
F12 Leoš Čermák2011
F82 Tomáš Divíšek2011
F28 Radek Dlouhý2009
F90 Martin Dočekal2009
F9 Roman Erat2009
F11 Miroslav Holec2011
F24 Miloslav Hořava2012
F57 Jan Hruška2012
F29 Jakub Koreis2011
F53 Vojtěch Němec2009
F39 Róbert Petrovický2011
F61 Jakub Svoboda2010
F23 Tomáš Svoboda2011
F22 Jan Wasserbauer2012
F20 Hynek Zohorna2011

Notes

  1. ↑ http://www.hc-kometa.cz/historie.asp
  2. ↑ Originally Závody kuličkových ložisek; this factory – now ZKL Group Brno – became main sponsor of the club
  3. ↑ http://www.hokej.cz/index.php?lng=CZ&view=clanek&id=43278
  4. ↑ "Kometa je v euforii a už mluví o titulu. Máme na to, tvrdí hráči". Mladá fronta DNES (in Czech). iDnes. 20 March 2012. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  5. ↑ "Pardubice - Brno 5:6. Stav série 1:1. Drama pro kardiaky. Kometa přetlačila Pardubice, padlo 11 gólů!" (in Czech). Sport.cz. 10 April 2012. Retrieved 10 April 2012.
  6. ↑ http://hc-kometa.cz/soupiska.asp

External links

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