During the latest international break many CHLers joined their national teams to play series of exhibition games. One of them was Milan Gulas, the leading scorer of Farjestad Karlstad. He played twice for the Czech national team this past weekend, helping them beat Russia both games.
by Karolina Antosova
PRAGUE – The Czech Republic hosted Russia twice this past weekend, Thursday night in Karlovy Vary and Saturday afternoon in Prague. Milan Gulas, a right winger from Farjestad Karlstad, played on a line that scored two of the team's goals in the first game, picking up an assist for himself in the 3–0 victory. After nine months it was a decent return to the Czech national team for him.
Overall, it's been a good season for the 29-year-old, who leads his club with 31 points (14+17) in 44 SHL games, and also had five points (3+2) in six Champions Hockey League games this season.
You were chosen to play for the Czech national team after almost a year. How happy were you when you heard you were picked?
It was great to see my name on the roster for these games. The whole season I want to do my job as well as I can, so then to get selected for two home games with the Czech national team is great. Moreover, when we're playing against Russia, it’s a like a bonus.
And you helped the Czechs get their first wins of the season.
We waited a long time for the first win, but our fans deserved that. They were amazing in Karlovy Vary and also here in Prague, where we got almost 17,000. What more could we ask for? Games like this are the reason you play hockey. To win two games against Russia is great – this was good test before the World Championship.
Could you compare the two games?
In the first game we scored some pretty goals and Alexander Salak had a great game in the net. But for the second game they were better prepared, tried to play more solid defence and then score on some counter-attacks. And they were quite successful with that. It was tough game for us, really hard to come back again. But in the end we won 4–3.
In past seasons you've often played in the Euro Hockey Tour but haven't been able to make the final roster for the World Championship. Do you think it will be different this year?
I always seem to lose the World Championship roster spot one week before the start. It's too bad (smile). You can’t do anything about that. I know I’m one of the players on the bubble. We’ll see what happens this season, but it’s not something that really worries me right now.
But in Farjestad you’re doing quite well. You are the team leader in points.
But my own statistics aren’t the reason why I play hockey – I play for my team. And our results could be better, we are in the middle of league standings with Färjestad. So first I need to finish my season in Sweden and then maybe focus on the World Championship.
When you speak about your situation in the league standings, it looks like the next weeks will be quite hard for you – you're still a few points out of sixth place (and an automatic quarter-final berth).
We're battling for the place with Orebro and in the last five games the points difference between us and the top of the league has got actually bigger. But the SHL is a really tough and balanced league, so it really doesn’t matter where we are now. Three wins you could jump up several spots. But at least we've been able to put some distance between us and the bottom of league. As we have a quite young team, it’s always good for us to know we can stay calm about our position.
You joined Färjestad last season, so this is your second year there. Are you happy playing there?
I’m really happy. Farjestad are a really good organization. I have a contract for one more year but if I get an offer from Farjestad, I’d like to sign there even longer.