Liam Kirk is about to complete his first complete season as a professional.

It’s been a successful campaign for Kirk on a personal level. He’s remained healthy and can point to a strong campaign production-wise given his role and assignments.

The same can be said for his new Czech team, despite a plethora of injuries and some tough stretches, where positive results were tough to come by.

With four games remaining in the 2023-24 regular season, Litvínov is looking to secure a top-four finish, which won’t be an easy task.

Litvínov currently occupies the fourth spot, with just four points separating them from seventh place,

With ExtraLiiga adopting the three-point win system, the standings can change very quickly in the final stages of the campaign

Attaining a top-four finish is important for two reasons.

Firstly you qualify directly for the quarterfinals and are guaranteed a home tie.

Secondly, whilst the wild-card teams do battle in best of five, therein lies the opportunity for a reset, recuperation and extra preparation time.

Litvínov’s remaining schedule is fairly kind with their biggest task on paper first up.

They will host the second-placed team, HC Sparta Prague on home ice.
Despite losing twice on the road to Sparta this year, Litvínov beat them 4-2 at home before Christmas with a sparse line-up.

Kladno are sitting last in the division with just five regulation wins to their name. One of those was on home ice against Litvínov, so caution will be required in the Knights’ backyard.

The final two games will see Litvínov play host to the currently ninth-ranked team Vítkovice before travelling to the team one spot below them, Olomouc.

The wildcard-playing series is seeded as follows:

5v12
6v11
7v10
8v9

All those series will comprise five games. All rounds after that will switch to the best-of-7 format.
Reseeding occurs after rounds one and two, which makes the final league placing even more critical.

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