In preparation for the World Championships, Hungary travelled to Vienna to take on Austria in an exhibition game, where Rich Chernomaz and his staff had a chance to see what the team can do in live action.
All in all HC Chernomaz had to be happy with the final outcome as the team was able to battle back from a two goal deficit.
Getting the start in goal was Miklós Rajna with Bence Bálizs as the backup and Zoltán Hetényi was scratched. Chernomaz had been trying out a couple of forwards as defenders, Tyler Metcalfe and Ákos Berta played on the blue line. The only player making their national team debut was the recently naturalized former NHL player Frank Banham. Also scratched was defencemen Tamás Gröschl, Attila Reiter, Viktor Tokaji and Arnold Varga. The forwards not hitting the ice were Zsolt Azari, Csanád Erdély, Csaba Kovács, Ladislav Sikorcin and Péter Vincze. As mentioned before Márton Vas, Gergő Nagy, Balázs Sebők and János Vas are still with their club teams.
Right off the bat by looking at the line combinations once could tell that it looks like two of the forward units are set.
The first half of the first period had a lot of skating as both team had solid attacks but no real scoring chances. In the thirteenth minute of the period Austria was able to break the ice when Metcalfe turned the puck over just outside the Hungary zone Manuel Geier slipped a pass to Manuel Ganahl who flipped it past Rajna for the opening goal of the game. Hungary was struggling to have any real scoring chances as it was clear the lines were not meshing as well.
With just over a minute left in the period Raphael Herburger skated down the right wing, used the other converted forward Ákos Berta as a screen and put a shot on net that bounced off of Berta’s skate, off of Rajna's glove and into the back of the net.
In the second period Rich Chernomaz was using the two lines that looked to be set a lot more or less as the “Volán” line of Dániel Kóger, Andrew Sarauer and Frank Banham as well as the second line of István Bartalis, János Hári and István Sofron. These two lines looked to be creating chances throughout the period. Just past the halfway point of the game Banham fed the puck to Kóger who was in the slot, his first attempt was blocked but he managed to flip the puck past David Madlener for the first Hungarian goal of the game. The rest of the period was more or less in Hungary’s favor but Rajna had faced exactly 40 shots through two periods.
The last twenty minutes had the feeling of an game that actually matters and Hungary picked up the pace and urgency. It was clear that Metcalfe didn't feel 100% comfortable on the blue line as he almost lost the puck out of the zone. He kept it in and will an easy flick of the wrist sent a shot into the top corner of the goal to tie it up. It didn't take long but 19 seconds later János Hári with some nice stickhandling gave Hungary their first lead of the game. A loose puck stayed in the zone off of Banham, Bartalis nicely put the puck on Hári’s tape who did the rest for the go ahead goal. In the closing seconds of the game András Benk scored an empty netter as Hungary defeated Austria for the first time since 1977, 4-2.
Today's Lineup
Rajna (Bálizs)
Orbán, Gőz
Szirányi B., Metcalfe
Pozsgai, Berta
Mestyán, Kiss D.
Banham, Sarauer, Kóger
Bartalis, Hári J., Sofron
Magosi B., Nagy K., Benk
Tóth A, Hajós, Sárpátki
Scratched: Hetényi Z., Gröschl, Reiter, Tokaji, Varga A., Azari, Erdély, Kovács Cs., Sikorcin, Vincze
Missing: Vas M, Nagy G, Sebők, Vas J.
Coaches' Corner
Rich Chernomaz: “The guys have been working really hard the last five days, the difference between the start and the end was tactical difference but the guys also started to use their bodies and our conditions came through, Rajna played excellent. We didn't have a power play so we couldn't work on that tonight, I got to give the guys a lot of credit for the way they came back”
Dieter Kalt: “I was happy the first period and the way we were skating, we had some good scoring chances, we should have scored more. We expected them to play more aggressive and they did, we were not as active as we wanted to be.”
View from the Ice
Tyler Metcalfe: “I felt comfortable I just need to get used to certain scenarios, by the second and third periods I felt a lot better. On that first goal I was out of position, I still need to get comfortable in situations like that.”
Frank Banham: “It's special anytime you are representing a country at any level, it was great night to play my first game. We came out a bit flat but got our legs under us as the game went on and in the end we were just stronger than them.”
Miklós Rajna: “We needed some time to pick up the pace of the game, we played well and at time we dominated them. Some of us hadn't played an actually game in two weeks and we needed some time to pick up the pace. We were able to do this after the first period.”
The Hungarian Squad
Goalies (3): BÁLIZS Bence (Miskolci Jegesmedvék) HETÉNYI Zoltán RAJNA Miklós (Fehérvár AV19)
Defensmen (11): KISS Dániel (Újpest) ORBÁN Attila, REITER Attila, SZIRÁNYI Bence, TOKAJI Viktor, VARGA Arnold (Fehérvár AV19), GRÖSCHL Tamás, POZSGAI Tamás, MESTYÁN Tamás (Dab.Docler), GŐZ Balázs (Miskolci Jegesmedvék), VAS Márton (Löwen Frankfurt, DEL2)
Forwards (22): AZARI Zsolt (Dab.Docler), BANHAM Frank, BARTALIS István, BENK András, EREDÉLY Csanád, KOVÁCS Csaba, KÓGER Dániel, MAGOSI Bálint, SÁRPÁTKI Tamás, SARAUER Andrew, SIKORCIN Ladislav, VINCZE Péter, (Fehérvár AV19), HAJÓS Roland, METCALFE Tyler, NAGY Krisztián, TÓTH Adrián (Miskolci Jegesmedvék), BERTA Ákos (Debreceni HK), SEBŐK Balázs (Hokki, FIN2), SOFRON István (Krefeld Pinguine, GER), VAS János (Slavia Praha, CZE) NAGY Gergő (Kalamazoo Wings, ECHL) HÁRI János (MODO, SWE)
Coaching Staff
Head Coach: Rich Chernomaz
Assistant Coaches: Gergely Majoross, Tamás Sille, Diego Scandella
Goalie Coach: Gary Clark
Exhibition game schedule
Friday April 10
19:00 Hungary-Austria (at the Tüskecsarnok)
Sunday April 12
17:00 Hungary Slovenia (at the Tüskecsarnok)
World Championships Schedule
Sunday April 19
13:00 Hungary-Japan
16:30 Ukraine-Kazakhstan
20:00 Poland-Italy
Monday April 20
13:00 Kazakhstan-Hungary
16:30 Italy-Ukraine
20:00 Poland-Italy
Tuesday April 21-Off day
Wednesday April 22
13:00 Kazakhstan-Japan
16:30 Italy-Hungary
20:00 Poland-Ukraine
Thursday April 23
13:00 Japan-Italy
16:30 Ukraine-Hungary
20:00 Kazakhstan-Poland
Friday April 24-Off day
Saturday April 25
13:00 Japan-Ukraine
16:30 Italy-Kazakhstan
20:00 Hungary-Poland
Photo: László Mudra