With his flowing sandy-blond hair, Pavol Regenda looks like he could be a surfer and seems quite at home in Southern California after two hockey seasons there.
“California, it’s a great place to be, you know?” the Anaheim Ducks’ 23-year-old prospect smiled. “It’s a great place to play hockey. After practising out by the beach, you can play golf. It’s sunny the whole year and that’s great. I’ve been enjoying California, and hopefully, I can stay there for a while.”
To that extent, playing hockey in Central Europe in late August must not be that much of an adjustment, weather-wise.
“I think it’s hotter here, to be honest,” he said. “There you’re by the sea, so it’s windier.”
Regenda is in Bratislava, on the opposite side of Slovakia from his hometown of Michalovce, for the Olympic qualifying tournament. In the first game, the Slovaks outlasted Austria 2-1, and in the second had trouble with Hungary for the first half of the game before eventually pulling away and winning 7-3.
“The first half of the game was close, but we worked as a team and we started scoring,” he said. Seven different players scored for Slovakia and only two players – Marek Hrivík and Lukáš Cingel – had two points. “Every line worked so hard the whole game to get every goal, and it’s great that we can move onto the next game with the confidence that we know we can score.”
Slovakia led 3-1 heading into the third period. Regenda then scored the first of four goals in a wild 1:56 span that saw the score go from 3-1 to 5-3 for Slovakia. His goal eventually held up as the game-winner.
“Our line is really physical and we spend a lot of time on offense, getting under their skin,” he said about playing with the Pospíšil brothers, Martin and Kristián. “We had a lot of chances and I’m glad it worked out somehow.”
On his goal, he said, “I just closed my eyes, shot it and it was in. I’m really happy that it finally went in.”
Slovakia and Kazakhstan have each beaten the other two teams in the tournament in regulation time, setting up a winner-takes-all encounter on Sunday. The Slovaks are the clear favorites, but in hockey, anything can happen in one game.
“We’ve played them the last two years at the Worlds so we know what they’re capable of,” Regenda said of the Kazakhs. “They have a lot of guys from the KHL – they have good players and they’ve won both games, so we have to be prepared.
“We have a day off tomorrow without a game, so we need to rest and if we do what we need to do and every line works hard again, we should be fine.”
Looking ahead to training camp
After the Olympic qualifying tournament is over, Regenda flies back to California on September 8 and then the Ducks’ training camp starts on the 18th.
“It’s really weird,” he said about playing such important games at this time of year. “But it’s a great test after summer. It’s good for me heading into training camp in Anaheim, and I think this will help me as far as conditioning, and having big game experience. That’s good for me and I have to use that to my advantage.”
As far as the situation in Anaheim goes, Regenda said, “The team’s been rebuilding and there have been a lot of guys coming in, a lot of young guys who are high draft picks.
“My goal is just to have a great camp and fit into the lineup and be a full-season player,” said Regenda, who over the past two seasons has played 19 NHL games and 104 with the AHL’s San Diego Gulls. “I think I can play in the NHL and I know what I have to do to be there. That’s what I’ve been focusing on all summer, and that’s what I have to show them.”
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