HC Kometa Brno

HC Kometa Brno
City	Brno, Czech Republic
League	Czech Extraliga
Founded	1953 (1953)
Home arena	DRFG Arena (Capacity: 7,700)
Colours	blue, white
Owner(s)	Libor Zábranský
Head coach	Alois Hadamczik
Captain	Leoš Čermák
Website	www.hc-kometa.cz

Club crest 1996-2012

HC Kometa Brno ("Comet" in English) is a professional ice hockey team based in Brno, Czech Republic. They play in the Czech Extraliga. Kometa 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). In 1962, the club changed its name to ZKL Brno (ZKL is abbreviation of "Ball Bearing Factory") and stopped being an army team. In 1976, the name was changed to Zetor Brno. Shortly after the revolution (1994), the 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 was relegated from Czech Extraliga to the second highest ice hockey league – 1st Czech Republic Hockey League. 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, playing in the East division of the third highest Czech ice hockey league - 2nd Czech Republic Hockey League. By the 2003-2004 season, it returned to 1. liga and began its little "renaissaince". In 2004, Kometa played its first playoffs series since 1997, reached the semifinals in 2008 and the 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.

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

Awards and trophies

• Czechoslovak league titles: 11 (1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966)
• European Cup champion: 3 (1966, 1967, 1968)
• Spengler Cup winner: 1 (1955)

History of the team name

• 1953 – Rudá hvězda Brno
• 1962 – TJ ZKL Brno
• 1976 – TJ Zetor Brno
• 1990 – HC Zetor Brno
• 1993 – HC Královopolská Brno
• 1994 – HC Kometa Brno
• 1995 – HC Kometa Brno BVV
• 1997 – HC Kometa Brno

Current players

Current roster for season 2012/2013

Position	#	Name	Acquired
G	1	Marek Čiliak	2013
G	35	Jiří Trvaj	2009
G	83	Martin Falter	2012
D	72	Lukáš Kozák	2016
D	32	Radim Bičánek	2009
D	6	Jozef Kováčik	2011
D	5	Tomáš Žižka	2011
D	71	Tomáš Malec	2010
D	68	Milan Hruška	2011
D	21	Filip Krejčiřík	2012
D	51	Jan Švrček	2011
D	48	Boris Valábik	2012
D	16	Juraj Valach	2011
F	12	Leoš Čermák	2011
F	82	Tomáš Divíšek	2011
F	28	Radek Dlouhý	2009
F	90	Martin Dočekal	2009
F	9	Roman Erat	2009
F	11	Miroslav Holec	2011
F	24	Miloslav Hořava	2012
F	57	Jan Hruška	2012
F	29	Jakub Koreis	2011
F	53	Vojtěch Němec	2009
F	39	Róbert Petrovický	2011
F	61	Jakub Svoboda	2010
F	23	Tomáš Svoboda	2011
F	22	Jan Wasserbauer	2012
F	20	Hynek Zohorna	2011

External links

• Official page
• Ultras Patriots Brno