After having won 10 games in a row something jammed in Cracovia’s mechanism. Pasy lost against GKS Tychy and, surprisingly, at home against Stoczniowiec Gdańsk. After these two defeats came narrow victory over Podhale Nowy Targ. Now, four rounds before the play-off, Cracovia is first in the table, four points ahead of Tychy.

GKS Tychy seems to be the strongest of our rivals. The team from Silesia is second in the league table and last season finished second, only to Cracovia. The games between these two teams recently became the classic clash of Polish ice-hockey. Pasy went to Tychy hoping to maintain the impressive winning streak, but GKS proved to be stronger. Cracovia scored the opening goal (Cieślak in 14^th min), but Tychy quickly equalized. In the second period home team scored twice and Cracovia left it without response. When Majkowski scored the fourth goal for Tychy some five minutes before the end it became clear, that there would be no 11^th victory. Cerny’s goal in 58^th minute was only a consolation.

The chance to rehabilitate came on Friday, as Stoczniowiec Gdańsk visited Kraków. Although Gdańsk is currently third team of the league, majority expected Cracovia’s victory. To some surprise the away team scored the opener after just eight minutes of play. But far bigger surprise was that this proved to be the winning goal. Cracovia, despite unquestionable domination could not beat Odborny – Gdańsk’s goalie. Odborny was the MVP of the game, and Cracovia was only one point ahead of Tychy.

The Sunday game against Podhale became really important. The team from Nowy Targ, currently fourth in the league, is traditionally one of the fiercest rivals of Cracovia. Unfortunately, this game was too chaotic and hardly reminded of some heroic clashes from the past. Hartmann’s goal scored in the power-play some three minutes before the end of the first period was the only goal of the game. Cracovia’s coach said that this was a narrow but deserved victory, while Podhale’s coach claims, that a draw would be a fair result. Whatever the truth is Cracovia is in a slight crisis now, and sits comfortably at the top of the table only because Tychy surprisingly lost in Sosnowiec. Let’s hope that the real master’s form will come for the play-offs, which are coming soon.