04/26/2008
RANTL CUP 2008
03/16/07 - 3/18/2007
CHICAGO CUP HOCKEY
TOURNAMENT
12/22/2006
Glacier Adult Hockey
League Finals.
Fighters beat Fog Cutters 5:1 and became the Champions.
08/14/2006
Fighters are getting ready for a new season. We'll be playing Glacier Adult Hockey League in Vernon Hills. The season starts September 5, 2006. The complete schedule will be available at the end of August. There'll be some minor changes in the roaster. All the best to everybody in the new season.
06/20/06
Fighters played
the highest tier of the HNA national championship in Las Vegas.competing against
the best teams from USA and Canada: Washington DC Rattlers, Cleveland Devils,
Calgary Chiefs, St. Louis Rebels, and Washington DC Leafs. There were five games
within 36 hours. The semifinal game started at 9:45 AM and after a 10-minute
break was immediately followed by the final game. Washington DC Rattles, who had
2 hours to recoup, had more strength during the final game. Fighters ended up at
2nd place.
The whole tournament was characterized by very good hockey performances.
06/16-06/18/06
League Championship in Las Vegas
By winning the local league, Fighters qualified to participate in the National League Championshiop taking place in Las Vegas. The results will be supplied immediately after the Championship.
04/22/06
Fighters - Green Berets 3:2 (0:1,1:1,1:0,0:0,1:0)
Green Berets started off better. Due to a big mistake of Fighters' defense, they took the lead. The 1st period was very tied, but the Berets had more luck. In the 2nd period Fighters managed to even the score during Berets' powerplay. However the period ended with another goal by Green Berets. The 3rd period was won by Fighters 1:0, which meant a tie 2:2 at the end. 5-minute overtime was played very cautiously by both teams. So the winner had to be decided by shootouts. 1st series of five shots ended 1:1.In the 2nd series Fighters scored - unlike Green Berets. Which meant that Fighters became the league champions. Not bad for a newcomer to HNA A-division.
04/19/06
Green Berets – Fighters 3:7 (1:1, 2:5, 0:1)
Our 2nd playoffs game, this time against the leading team, started at a fast pace. Fighters took the lead in the 2nd minute. By the end of the 1st period Green Berets had evened out the score. It was fast, hard, and aggressive hockey. It was very good.Green Berets had started off the 2nd period better – scoring a lucky goal. But their lead didn’t last long. Sixteen seconds later, Fighters managed to tie the score. Two more minutes into the game and due to a big mistake on behalf of Fighters, Green Berets took the lead again. Not for long, though. Fighters needed just 20 second to answer with another goal. By the end of the period, Fighters had scored two more goals. Fighters started the 3rd period with a 3-goal lead which gave them mental support. At the beginning of the period they secured their lead with another goal in powerplay.Green Berets were given an opportunity to score by playing many powerplays, four times 5 on 3. But Fighters’ good teamwork didn’t give them a chance. Some of the penalties against Fighters were “undeserved”. It’s very interesting that Fighters have so many penalties in games with just certain referees.Overall, this was a dignified playoff game full of good hockey moments.Both teams will meet again on Thursday, 4/20/06. This could be the last playoff game.
Ivo Kozina #9
04/13/06
First playoff game against Tops, Fighters won
12:0 (5:0, 4:0, 3:0). We scored our leading goal in the 1st minute. And this was
the beginning of the end for Tops. Desperately skating Tops, unable to get to
the puck, at least tried to hurt our players. They played tough. They were
highly disadvantaged by having one of the players fill in the shoes for their
absent goalie. But even their regular goalie would have had his hands full with
40 shots on the net sent by Fighters. This was our 7th game with Tops and our
7th win with a total score of 64:15. Scoring as many as 12 goals in one game is
by no means supposed to ridicule the opponent. It's just that our team is used
to playing with all their might from the opening whistle till the final
one.
Our next playoff games are going to be against strong Green Berets.
According to HNA's rules, it's a two-game elimination system. So we're in for at
least two, maximum three games. We're currently focusing on our first game,
which will take place on Monday, 4/17/06 at 9:40 PM in Addison.
Ivo Kozina #9
03/04/2006
Fighters
enter into the playoffs of the A-division of their 1st HNA season from 2nd
place. Out of 20 games, we have 15 wins, 1 loss, 1 overtime loss, and 1 tie.
Total points 32 with a score of 144 : 46.
First playoff game will be against Tops, which occupies 3rd place. This will be
our 7th game against this team. We will do our best to win again, just like in
all of the previous games.
02/27/06
Sunday night Czech Fighters gave Green Berets a present in the form of two points.Czech Fighters played hockey and Green Berets scored. Comparing shots on goal: Czech Fighters needed 49 shots to score 3 goals, whereas Green Berets produced 5 goals out of their 19 attempts. Come to think of it, Fighters were attacking the opponent’s net every 55 seconds. But as usual, proved to be unable to use their scoring chances. Green Berets’s goalkeeper is partially to be blamed – he stood at the right spot in the majority of cases. On the whole, both teams played fair and it was a good game.Fighters will meet Green Berets two more times before playoffs – those games will be decisive in the final standings.
Ivo Kozina #9
02/14/06
After
the last game we had played with Tops, they posted some remarks about our team
on their website. Quote: “I
think they have very low esteem, that's why they need to feel good about beating
6 guys by 10 goals. " These
words were written by Mr.Fiorio. Therefore I was ready before Sunday’s game to
ask his permission to score more than 6 goals. But he didn't show up. This team
was playing in six players again, and they asked for running time from
the start of the game.
The game started to turn nasty after our player hit one of Tops. What followed
was like a bad dream. Tops’s behavior deteriorated after that. As an example,
just a few interesting moments: No. 7, Mr. Schwarz offering one of our players
$100 for a fight, or slashing our guy after the whistle, or insulting comments
about our nationality.
Or
Mr. Kennedy’s childish act - showing his behind to our fans for which he was
kicked out off the game. The rest
of Tops players were just waiting for the game to end.
Honestly, 4 year old kids have more discipline than some of Tops players.
I hope Mr.Blume will ask the referees what happened or maybe we can give him the
video from this game.
We
are disappointed that the league differs from what we were promised at the
captains meeting before the season. There was a lot of talk about the strict
rules against troublemakers. So why doesn’t HNA do something about them? They
can simply look at the penalty minutes records and figure out who follows the
rules.
David Salamoun #20
01/27/06
The game against the Admirals, even though it was a victory of 11-1; I felt especially in the last 10 minutes of that game all we seemed to do was getting the puck and shooting it. I felt from sitting back in my net, that you guys completely abandoned the strategies and passing drills that we practice as a team every week. Even though we put 46 shots on net, a lot of those shots should have been from some form of a play, not just getting the puck and shooting it for the hell of it. Unfortunately for the Admirals, they were the team that we played after a disappointing loss to the Green Berets a few days ago. I must say, I'm kinda glad we lost that game. I for one got used to winning and lost focus and got lazy and therefore put forth a horrible effort in a 5-3 loss. We cannot go into every game just assuming we are going to win. We must play every game like we are playing against a first place team and never take any team for granted.
Johnny Napolitano #5
01/10/06
The first hockey game for Fighters team in Wilmette ice arena was on Friday night against Admirals. Admirals are a good team if they have a full squad of players. Tonight they had only 8 guys on their bench and Fighters used up this advantage perfectly. We controlled the game from the beginning and scored first four goals. Then Admirals raised their heads and from one breakaway action scored their only goal in this game. We answered their call with other three goals and this lead to the final score 7:1 for Fighters. We all hope for better Admirals’ preparation for the next match, so that the game can be more fun to watch and to play. Thanks Fighters for solid performance and Admirals for clean, almost no penalty game. Keep up the good work.
Jiri Babor #89
01/08/06
This was a typical
game played very cautiously by both teams. Which is to be expected when you’re
playing against only 3 teams the whole season. We had a lot of scoring chances
(just like in our every game) but we didn't score more than 1 goal in two
periods. We finally broke the ice at the start of the third period with two fast
goals during one shift. Tops goalie was unbelievably good. I think he is the
reason why Tops are on the 3rd place at Tier 1. Another good factor of the game
were the referees. Both of them were correct in every situation especially
when a couple of Tops players started talking language typical for them. These
two referees had everything under control. Fault language was present all
the game when you just skated around Tops’s bench or if you were standing on
the face-off (not from everybody) but from the same players who got game
misconducts - fault language. I think Mr.Fiorio and his closest teammates
have to understand that everybody plays for fun and the results of the games are
only numbers. If you can't take loosing, probably you can't play team sports.
Zbynek Blaha #6
12/25/05
Graceland
Wedding Chappel, Las Vegas, NV
Big day for our coach, David Salamoun and his girlfriend Helena Novakova - they
got married!!! Congratulations on behalf of the whole Fighters family.
12/20/05
Another
game is behind us - of course we are satisfied with the result We played the
whole game in Admirals’ defensive zone,and I think they knew before the puck
was dropped ,who the winner of this game would be. If I have to tell the truth,
Admirals was the only team after the first round who made us a little nervous ,
because after the first game which
we tied 6 :6 , I had to said the Admirals at full squad are the most talented
team at Tier 1 (after us, of course) .That's why I was so suprised when they had
only 7-8 guys on the ice this time. They explained us after the game that this
will their team for the rest of the season .I’m suprised because I don’t
understand why before the
season’s start you have almost 15 players and now after a couple
of games there’s only 7 of them ?
David Salamoun #20
12/12/05
Finally a game that we were used to –Fighters were the ones to set the tone. We were indisputably better the whole time, even though our superiority often failed as far as scoring is concerned. This was caused by a very good performance of the opponent’s goalie and our incapability to hit an empty net. Unlike the first game we played against Green Berets, this time our opponent wasn’t that good. They had two very good players, who stood up: #17 Fortunski and #21 Buenz. The latter unfortunatelly this time played really dirty. Which surprised me a lot – why would such a good player play so dirty? I was also surprised by some of the calls that the referees had during the game.Especially the one after the end of the game when their goalie gave our guy crosscheck from behind just out of the blue. An act like that should have been punished more harshly than with just a 2-minute penalty. I’m looking forward to watching the video from this game. This will help me to understand if these for me questionnable calls where justified.I’d like to especially thank to Peter Zeman and David Salamoun, who mostly contributed to our win. I’d also like to point out the performance of our offence player Dan Lesinsky. He’s been doing a very good job for a long time. For the rest of you – don’t cry, you were great too, all of you! Keep playing fair play. I’m looking forward to our next game.
Adam Hlubocky #38
12/09/05
This was a game in the usual Fighters-style: all the time trying to catch up with the opponent losing by a few goals until we finally started playing as a team. We can say that Fighters were struggling with ourselves instead of fighting with the opponent. It doesn’t mean that we had a bad opponent. On the contrary, Tops played well. But as usual, our weakest point was scoring. With the total of 39 shots on goal (as opposed to 15 shots by Tops), we only managed to score 5 goals. This was due to our inefficiency to score, our incapability to shoot hard enough, and also a very good performance by the Tops’ goalie. Thankfully this wasn’t the same scenario as in the game with Green Berets, where we had to blame only ourselves for the loss. We were glad that notwithstanding the snow calamity both teams showed up with enough players.
Dan Lesinsky #21
11/21/05
Yesterday we played against Green Berets. We played at the hockey arena in Addison and from the very first minute it was clear that this would not be an easy match. Not only because of Green Barets being the leading team in our division, but also because of the Olympic size rink not suiting us at all. It took us half the game to finally find ourselves and start playing the way we’re used to. It was obvious that our opponent came to win this match and they worked hard to achieve their victory. I can’t say that they were decisively better. I think both teams played equally well. But Berets played tough and with their hearts. At the end of the second period we started to play better. We had several chances to score; we hit the post three times, which didn’t really help us. At the beginning of the third period we finally took over the lead and we thought our victory was in the bag. However, four minutes before the end during their power play, Green Berets managed to score an unfortunate goal, which broke us down. After a few more nervous minutes full of emotions and unnecessary penalties followed another goal – 30 seconds before the end. This knocked us out completely. In the overtime we didn’t manage to rise to the challenge, which resulted in a nontactical defeat. To sum it up – it was a good game. There is always only one winner and one loser. So we’re looking forward to our next game, which hopefully will be a winning one. Just a comment about the referees: there were a few situations when they had no idea whom to give a penalty and what for. Well, that’s of course part of the game…
Petr Zeman #16
11/14/05
The result after our game against Silver Lightning tells everything. These guys were trying so hard, but they didn't have enough guys on the bench, against full squad of the Fighters.Result 10:0 looks like one of the easy games but it wasn't that easy untill the half of the second period when they started loosing power. Most of the game was played in the Lightning zone ,where we waisted too many scoring chances. They had a couple of good scoring chances too ,but our goalie was always on the right place. It was a solid game (not for the fans, though), there were no penalties, no emotions. After this game we have to start focusing on our confidence ,we need to be 100% in the game from start to finish.Next week we will be “fighting” for the first place in the division against Green Berets so I hope it's gonna be an exciting game.
David Salamoun
11/7/05
Sunday's game with the Admirals was quite exciting. With both teams playing a very aggressive style of hockey. We started out sluggish, missing a lot of our break- out passes and having some trouble staying on side. Unfortunately, that was something that plagued us all game. There was some holding and stick work throughout the whole game on both sides. But again that's hockey. We're just going to have to pick up our game and cover each other whether it's in the offensive or defensive zone. We thought we had it won but we just stopped being aggressive and that's something you can not do. So we have to settle for a tie and learn from it and go on and not let that happen again. Regarding the refs we thought more penalties should have been called but you have to be able to forget about it and play hard the whole game and not let any bad call or no call effect your game. Thanks to the Admirals for a hard fighting game all the way through.
Johnny Napolitano #5
10/30/05
Fighters played their first HNA game at the ice hockey arena in Addison. Their
opponent was a team that managed to win the HNA several times in the past -
Tops.. After periods 1:2, 1:1, and 5:0, Fighters won 7:3. Tops played tough with
lots of penalties. They injured Jiri Babor, he has 5 stitches on his chin. Marek
Kolbe's tooth got broken. One of their players was ejected from the game for
a repeated major crosscheck after the whistle. Fighters dominated most of the
game even though we were not able to score a lot during the first two
periods.Their goalie did a very good job, but he could not keep up with the
constantly attacking Fighters.
Our team is now getting ready for another game on Sunday, 11/6/05 against
Admirals.
Ivo Kozina #9
10/23/05
Fighters played the evaluation game to determine which division of Hockey North
America they would be placed in. Following the 7:0 win, Fighters was placed in
Division A.
Ivo Kozina #9
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