Friday was the first of the three days of festivities that are taking place on the ice surface in City Park in Budapest. The first event of the weekend was an EBEL match in which middle of the table Sapa Fehérvár AV19 took on a strong Red Bull Salzburg, a squad which is found at the top of the standings, with Fehérvár playing in jerseys that had a bit of a throwback feeling to them.
It was bitter cold but as the flood lights bounced off the ice and illuminated the boards and the glass it was a sight to see.
"From the fans standpoint this is great, it's a great sight and the atmosphere is outstanding," said Ferencváros forward Zoltán Pál who come out to see his friend Árpád Mihály play in the Winter Classic. "It would be better if it wasn't so cold".
U-20 national team forward Krisztián Nagy come out to watch the action with his teammates before the U-20 national team head to Miskolc for the world championships.
"This is a sight to see, I'm sure that this is a great experience for the guys on the ice, I wish I could be out there, too," said Nagy. "The atmosphere was great and Volán played well," said Ági Szigeti, goalie for the womens national team, after the game.
The match itself was great for the "home" team as they took the two points by the 6-3 win, unfortunately there were a couple of casualties. Bence Bálizs got the start between the pipes but had to leave the game halfway through because of a groin injury. Also in the second period Colton Yellow Horn was clocked after passing the puck to Frank Banham to make it 4-2. Banham would later go on to score the final goal of the game as well.
Fehérvár opened up the scoring on a Ladislav Sikorcin goal but Salzburg tied it up soon after when Evan Brophey found the back of the net. Fehérvár took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission thanks to a Yellow Horn power play goal. A Csaba Kovács breakaway goal made it 3-1, Fabio Hofer brought the visitors back within one but could never truly get back into the game as Banham and Andreas Nödl exchanged goals at the end of the second period. The third was all Fehérvár as Bálint Magosi and Banham each found the back of the net to set the final score.
"The ice was surprisingly good and the atmosphere was great," said Marty Raymond, head coach of Fehérvár. "This has been a great experience, I think they should organize something like this every year". Don Jackson, the coach of Salzburg looked to have a similar opinion of the event "Playing outdoors is not an everyday event, I think we need to have more games like this."
When the players were asked what it was like to play out on the ice all of them started with words like "it was really great" or "it was a great experience and the atmosphere was awesome,"
Bálint Magosi stated that the weekend itself will be great, Benjámin Nemes added "we had a lot of fun, it was really great, the surroundings were really good and ice was satisfactory as well."
On Saturday after an U10 tournament and an U18 EBEL league game there will be an old boys All Star game with Balázs Kangyal and Krisztián Palkovics being the two captains for their respective teams, this will be followed by the main event, the MOL League matchup between DAB.Docler and Miskolc.
Szabolcs Závodszky
@Zavodszky