Goalie Hašek to pay for damaged championship cup

Pardubice, East Bohemia, Sept 14 (CTK) - The Czech ice hockey champion Pardubice will demand that its former goalie Dominik Hasek pay the fine the club had been imposed for the damage of the championship cup for the winner of the Elite League, club chairman Ondrej Herman told journalists Tuesday.

Hasek, 45 who was transferred to Russian KHL' Spartak Moscow in summer, should also pay for the repair of the cup that cost 70,000 crowns.

"Every player in the club has the right to borrow the cup for one to three days for his personal needs," Herman said.

"All the players except one have returned it in order. The club will certainly not pay for the arisen damage. Only the one who was responsible for the cup," Herman said.

The championship cup was damaged during Hasek's private celebrations in May, but the information was only disclosed at a press conference before the beginning of another Elite League on Monday.

Elite League director Stanislav Sulc said the general assembly of the Association of the Professional Clubs of Ice Hockey had imposed a fine on Pardubice.

"In my view, there was the intention of damaging the cup," Sulc told the paper Hospodarske noviny today.

"Along with other damage, nameplates with former champions were torn out. The names of clubs and players. This did not happen out of negligence," he added.

The trophy is now in order as shown by Pardubice representatives at the press conference before the opening of another season where the cup was put on display.

"We had the cup repaired immediately after it was damaged," the club's general manager Zbynek Kusy has said.

Hasek has been reluctant to comment on the affair.

"Yes, this happened. I know the cup was damaged at my celebrations. But I was not present there till the end. At the critical moment I was not near the cup," Hasek told the daily Sport.

A two-time Stanley Cup winner, Hasek ("Dominator") also received six Vezina Trophies in NHL and won the 1998 Winter Olympics in the Czech national team.