Koprivnice

These days HC ISMM Kopřivnice sits well below the level the town's ice once aimed for. That gap between ambition and current standing is not new — the club has spent most of its history one or two divisions down.

Through the communist decades it played as TJ Tatra Kopřivnice, then cycled through Adelard, Sky Power and a second spell as Tatra before settling on ISMM in 2019.

The clearest link to a higher level runs through Patrik Bartošák , the goaltender who came up through the club before being drafted by the Los Angeles Kings and later winning Olympic bronze with the Czech national team.

The club's regional titles cluster in two eras: the 1960s and 1980s brought Severomoravský krajský přebor championships, and the 2000s added a run of Moravskoslezský krajský přebor titles before a step up to the Moravskoslezská krajská liga was capped with the championship there in 2013.

None of that carries the weight of the fixture against HK Nový Jičín, the neighbouring town's club.