HC Kometa Brno
HC Kometa Brno | |
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City | Brno, Czech Republic |
League | Czech Extraliga |
Founded | 1953 |
Home arena | Winning Group Arena (capacity: 7,700) |
Colours | Blue, white |
Owner(s) | Libor Zábranský |
Head coach | Kamil Pokorný |
Captain | Jakub Flek |
Affiliate | SK Horácká Slavia Třebíč |
Website | www |
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 most successful ice hockey club in the Czech Republic with 14 Czechoslovak (and Czech) league championship titles. Holding three European Cup titles, Kometa ranks as the most successful Czech club in international ice hockey. The team HC Kometa Brno has won three Czech Extraliga championships, capturing the title back-to-back in 2016–17 and 2017–18, and for a third time in 2024–25, so therefore, the club is also the current champion (2025) of the Czech Republic, a country that is the current world champion.
History
[edit]
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 two 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 an abbreviation of "Ball Bearing Factory")[2] 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 the 1950s (as opposed to the official "Red Star") and the team was commonly referred to by this name since its beginning.

In 1996, the team was relegated from Czech Extraliga to the second highest ice hockey league, the 1st Czech Republic Hockey League. For many years, the team struggled due to poor financing and multiple changes of owners, facing relegation again in 2001–2002. The club almost ceased to exist, playing in the East division of the third-highest Czech ice hockey league. By the 2003–2004 season, it returned to the first league. In 2004, Kometa played its first playoff series since 1997, reached the semifinals in 2008, and reached the finals in 2009.
On 1 April 2009, Kometa bought the licence for another South Moravian club, HC Znojemští Orli. This club began to 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, in six games, qualifying for the playoff semifinals.[4] In the semifinals, they defeated HC Plzeň 1929, the runner-up of the regular season, in five games. In the final, Kometa lost the Czech Extraliga championship final to HC Pardubice in six games.[5]
The name
[edit]The club's name has been formally Kometa for 31 years. In reality, however, it is much older. It has existed as an informal, yet completely dominant, automatic name used by fans, rivals, the general public, public authorities including those responsible for sports and the media since at least the mid-1960s. Formally used names: ZKL or Zetor are synonyms of the same entity, which was the tractor manufacturer ZETOR. This company was an investor in the club between 1962 and 1992. Even at this time, only the name KOMETA was used in public (albeit informally, but without reservation)
Players
[edit]- Vlastimil Bubník
- Slavomír Bartoň
- Bronislav Danda
- František Vaněk
- Ladislav Olejník
- Bohumil Prošek
- Stanislav Sventek
- Zdeněk Návrat
- František Mašlán
- Jan Kasper
- Jaroslav Pavlů
- Vladimír Nadrchal
- Josef Černý
- Rudolf Potsch
- Oldřich Machač
- Jaroslav Jiřík
- Richard Farda
- Kamil Brabenec
- Jiří Dopita
- Vladimír Bouzek
- Václav Pantůček
- František Ševčík
- Vlado Dzurilla
- Brandon Davidson
- Peter Mueller
- Tomáš Zohorna
- Arttu Ilomäki
- Nicolas Beaudin
- Gašper Krošelj
- Jakub Flek
Honours
[edit]Domestic
[edit]Winners (11): 1954–55, 1955–56, 1956–57, 1957–58, 1959–60, 1960–61, 1961–62, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1964–65, 1965–66
Runners-up (4): 1953–54, 1967–68, 1968–69, 1970–71
3rd place (3): 1958–59, 1966–67, 1969–70
1st. Czech National Hockey League
International
[edit]Pre-season
[edit]Winners (1): 1955
Runners-up (1): 1957
Winners (1): 2014
Winners (1): 2008
History of the team name
[edit]- 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
Players
[edit]Current roster
[edit]Source: hc-kometa.cz[6]Source: eliteprospects.com[7]As of January 25, 2022.
Gallery
[edit]-
Playoff match against PSG Zlín 2011
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PSG Zlín match
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PSG ZLín full play
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The old stadium behind Lužánky park
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The closing of the season 2011
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DRFG Arena - main entrance
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The former logo
See also
[edit]* Královo pole * Lužánky * Královo Pole indoor arena
Notes
[edit]- ^ "Historie » Info". hc-kometa.cz.
- ^ Originally Závody kuličkových ložisek; this factory – now ZKL Group Brno Archived 21 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine – became the main sponsor of the club.
- ^ "Hokej.cz - Kometa Brno se po třinácti letech vrací do extraligy! Koupila licenci od Znojma". Archived from the original on 5 April 2009. Retrieved 9 April 2009.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "Team Roster / HC Kometa Brno". www.hc-kometa.cz. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
- ^ "Team Roster / HC Kometa Brno". www.eliteprospects.com. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
Further reading
[edit]- Meitner, Zdeněk (2024). Kometa. 70 let hokejového klubu. Jota. ISBN 978-80-7689-331-3.