
Mountfield captain Radek Smoleňák has also played for Kladno, Kingston Frontenacs, Johnstown Chiefs, Springfield Falcons, Norfolk Admirals, Mississippi Sea Wolves, Abbotsford Heat, Tampa Bay Lightning and Chicago Blackhawks, Ässät, Pelicans and TPS, Medveščak Zagreb, Slovan Bratislava and Ugra, Timrå and Modo, and Rapperswil-Jona Lakers. Source.
Sparta Prague visit Mountfield HK at Zimní stadion Hradec Králové. Zimní means winter. Hradec Králové is a city on the river Elbe in eastern Bohemia.
Mountfield have been in the Extraliga ten years and have yet to win the Czech championship. They're currently 8th in the standings.
Results so far:
2022/10/18 Mountfield 3 - 2 Sparta Prague
2022/12/2 Sparta Prague 2 - 1 Mountfield
[2023/1/15 Mountfield 3 - 4 Sparta Prague]
Hockey in the first Czechoslovakian Republic:
I can find no record of organized hockey in Austria-Hungary during World War One. It looks like the only clubs that were playing at all in Europe were the Swiss ones.
Czechoslovakia was created in October 1918, comprised of Bohemia, Moravia plus a bit of Silesia, Slovakia and Ruthenia. Hockey quickly started up, but it took years to get to the point of organizing a national league. In the 1920s there were invitational tournaments and friendly matches, and a national championship if there was still ice when they got to it. By the 1930s there were regional championships for Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, and a federation of German-speaking teams, and from 1930 the winners of these regional leagues met in a national championship.
In 1936 the top clubs from these groups combined into a national league. The member clubs that year were LTC Prague, AC Sparta Prague, AC Stadion České Budějovice, HC Tatry Poprad, SSK Vitkovice, Troppauer EV Opava, SK Slavia Prague and BK Mlada Boleslav. The league lasted only two seasons before the Germans disassembled the Czechoslovakia.
LTC Prague were the dominant club of the era.