The day after winning their third title, HK Nitra's players are still absorbing the historic scale of Thursday's final — the Corgoni completed a comeback from 1:3 in games and became the first team in the history of the independent Slovak extraliga to achieve this in a final. The title arrived in exactly the season when the club from beneath Zobor is celebrating a century of hockey.
A childhood dream at 18
The youngest player on the ice in the decisive game admitted immediately after the final whistle that during overtime, every time Slovan entered Nitra's zone, his gut clenched. "I scored the deciding goal in front of a full house in my native Nitra. My childhood dream came true while I'm still practically a child. The first two periods weren't good from our side, but then we started playing like dragons," said Tomáš Chrenko Jr. after the match. A product of the club's youth system and son of general manager Tomáš Chrenko Sr., he led Slovakia's scoring at the U20 World Championship at the turn of the 2025/26 season and could be drafted into the NHL in June. Official Tipsport Liga highlights:
A curious incident: damaged video cube
The drama of the seventh game also had a technical curiosity. The live text broadcast on hokejspravy.sk recorded, at the 56:07 mark of playing time, a moment that television cameras captured from multiple angles: "The puck flew high into the air, all the way up to hit the information cube." Sportweb (Pravda) summed up the moment briefly on Instagram — "The home cube also took a hit from the puck." Šport.sk stated in a Facebook video that "the cube in Nitra couldn't take it anymore — a curious situation in the seventh final game." The local portal Nitralive.sk published a close-up photograph showing a visibly broken-off piece hanging above the ice. Photos from the celebrations show that the video cube remained visibly damaged even after Chrenko's goal.
Kmeč leads the team to the title after years in assistant roles
Nitra was led to the title by coach Andrej Kmeč, a longtime assistant in Nitra, in Zvolen, and briefly in Slovan — pravda.sk recalled that his detractors called him the "eternal assistant" and claimed he didn't have what it takes for the top role. Before last season, club president Miroslav Kováčik and general manager Tomáš Chrenko Sr. promoted him to head coach; after last year's final defeat to Košice, he led Nitra under his own management to a second consecutive final — and this time with the title. At the same time, the club is bidding farewell to Sebastián Čederle, winner of the award for best player of the playoffs. "That was my last game for Nitra," he confirmed his departure, without yet revealing his new destination. He expects an invitation to the national team from Vladimír Országh ahead of the May World Championship in Zurich and Fribourg.
Reactions from both benches
President Kováčik admitted immediately after the game that he "still can't quite process it," and thanked Chrenko: "The young man decided it, even though they're going through a difficult time in the family." Captain Branislav Mezei summed up the six-week journey through Poprad, Michalovce, and Slovan with the words "young Tomáš scored the goal, it's unbelievable." Slovan coach Brad Tapper, whose blue-and-whites failed to convert three match points in the series, said at the press conference: "It was a great game and an amazing series. I love this city, these players, and we'll be back next year." Assistant coach Tomáš Surový added that in the third period Slovan "eased off" the pace a bit, and that in overtime both teams had chances. Among the Czech players, 35-year-old forward Filip Bajtek won his third title with Nitra (previously in 2016 and in the 2023/24 season); with Slovan, Jonáš Peterek took home silver, having recorded one assist in the decisive game.
