In between the first and second legs of the CHL's eighth-final series, several players are playing for their home countries in various international tournaments. Daniel Rahimi and Juraj Mikus, who are facing each other in the Sparta – Linkoping match-up, each spoke about the experience after game one. 

by Karolina Antosova

PRAGUE – Linkoping HC defeated Sparta Prague Tuesday night 2–1 in the first leg of their Champions Hockey League eighth-final series, which means they'll take a one-goal lead into the second leg at home next Tuesday. Most of the players on the two teams will have a chance to rest a bit and get ready for the next game, but a few players have been summoned into duty for their respective national teams. 

After the game, Linkoping defenceman Daniel Rahimi and Sparta defenceman Juraj Mikus spoke about their busy schedules. Rahimi will be playing for Sweden at the Karjala Cup in Helsinki, while Mikus is going to Munich to play for Slovakia at the Deutschland Cup. 

Daniel Rahimi

You have quite a busy schedule. Where do you go from here?
From Prague, I fly back to Stockholm and from there I’ll go to Leksand where we will play our first game of the Karjala Tournament against Russia. I have a quite a busy schedule these days. We played in the SHL on the weekend, then here in Prague and then I’ll play in Sweden Thursday and Finland Saturday and Sunday, then at home in Linkoping next Tuesday.

Can you explain the feeling of getting chosen for the Swedish national team?
Of course I’m really happy, I really appreciate the opportunity to play for Sweden again. I’ve already played couple of games for our national team and I always enjoy it.

What do you think your chances are of coming back to Prague to play in the World Championship for Sweden?
I’ve already played at the World Championship once and of course I want to play again. If I play the whole season like I’m playing now, I might have a chance to make the final roster.

What about the rest of the Swedish team you'll be playing with?
We have a lot of skilled and talented players. I’m really looking forward to playing with them at the Karjala Cup.

Juraj Mikus

Sparta is the last Czech team in the CHL. Did you think about that before the game?
We didn’t discuss that before the game. We were just thinking that we advanced from a really hard group, so it would be a shame to be eliminated right away in the next round.

What about the game? I guess it didn't go the way you would like.
Again it was the same problem we've had recently – we aren’t able to score enough goals in our home games. It’s exactly like in the Czech league. We're usually better away from home, so we hope we're able to score more goals next Tuesday in Linkoping.

The team's been busy lately - this game was your third in the last six days. Didn’t you feel little bit tired?
These games were really tough for us, especially the one with (cross-town rival) Slavia. But we can't use that as an excuse. I think that Linkoping must have had a busy schedule too.

You get no rest now, as you now go to Munich to play for Team Slovakia. Will it be difficult to keep your energy level high enough?
No. I'm motivated to do my best at the Deutschland Cup now because at the next tournament in December I expect our coach to take players from the KHL. So I don’t have that many chances to showcase myself as I did in years past.

What do you think about (Sparta teammate) Lukas Cingel joining you on the Slovak national team?
He’s a new player, so I’ll have to take care of him. I’m really happy I won’t be the only one from Sparta there. We should have been three with Cingel and (Marek) Daloga, but Daloga is injured, so unfortunately he can’t go.

And what about the Slovak team you'll be playing on?
We don’t have any guys older than 26 on our team. So it’ll be more like a junior team.