Kometa Wins!

HC Kometa Brno is the local professional ice hockey team and they play in the Czech Extraliga.  On Wednesday night they won the top domestic league title.  The last time Kometa won was 51 years ago during the 1965-1966 season.

The club dates back to 1953 when it was founded as an Czechoslovak army club then called Rudá hvězda Brno, Red Star.  

In 1993, the Czechoslovak First Ice Hockey League split up following the Velvet Divorce and the Czech Extraliga was formed.  There are 14 teams in the league which is the top-level league in the country.

HC Kometa Brno has won 12 Czechoslovak, and Czech, championships and 3 European Cup titles.  They placed second in the league in 2012 and in 2014.  Ice hockey is a big deal here so there has been a lot of celebrating (i.e., drinking) going on since Wednesday when they beat Liberec for the championship.

I've only been to one Kometa pre-season match against St. Petersburg which was a lot of fun.  It's quite difficult to get tickets to matches as Kometa fans are very loyal.  Even when they're not playing well it's damn near impossible to score tickets.

There was a procession in the streets today and a big rally in the centre for the players.