The Hungarian national team is in Norway for the next three days to participate in the EIHC 4 Nations tournament, where they will be taking on the host national along with France and Denmark.
This weekend will be a great test for what the Hungarian team should expect in next season's World Championships in Russia as well as to see who can jump in incase of injuries in February during the Olympic Qualifying tournament.
Head Coach Rich Chernomaz will be missing from the tournament because he will be with the U20 team in France, running the bench will be long time assistant Diego Scandella along with assistants Gergely Majoross, Tamás Sille and goalie coach Gary Clarke.
Also missing the team that won promotion in Krakow because of injuries is Márton Vas, Balázs Gőz, János Vas, János Hári, István Sofron, Frank Banham and Andrew Sarauer. Tyler Metcalfe was not able to make it because of family obligations and Csanád Erdély will be staying with his club.
The goalie position is the that has stayed the same since May, all three netminders will get a start during the week. Miklós Rajna has been in great for in Fehérvár so far this season, Zoltán Hetényi looks to be healthy after last season and Bence Bálizs is building off of the success that he had last season.
“Rajna has been playing with confidence all season, Hetényi has gotten over his health issues and Bálizs has looked good so far this season, we had a great camp with the goalies all three guys are looking solid” said Gary Clark as he touched on all three players.
The blue line has been the weak point the past couple of seasons because the lack of depth that was available. The additions of Jesse Dudas and Kevin Wehrs should help with the issue and look for younger players such as Attila Reiter and Arnold Varga to step up. The backbone of the unit will be Bence Szirányi and Tamás Pozsgai who will have to show their maturity while Márton vas and Viktor Tokaji are unavailable. Assistant coach Sille talked about the situation with the defencmen, “We have ten defencemen and we have the opportunity to play without pressure since the real tournament is in February for the Olympics, we can take a good look at a larger number of players. There is a nice mix of new players and veterans”
In the past scoring has usually not been a problem but this weekend the team will be facing a better defending and stronger goaltending, this will be magnified with the number of forwards out with injuries. The only forward line that could still be intact from Krakow is the fourth line of Bálint Magosi, Krisztián Nagy and András Benk. The scoring hopefully will be coming off the stics of Dániel Kóger, Balázs Sebők and Ladislav Sikorcin. One other person to keep an eye on is Károl Csányi.
“We didn't really actually look at lines these two days, it more looking at how we had at each position, at left wing, center and right wing, we had some unexpected injuries so that put a twist onto the original plan.” said assistant coach Gergely Majoross, “We have some pretty good depth despite the injuries which lead to us having to make a number of tough decisions. A Lot of new guys will have a chance to show that they can play at this level and will battle for their positions.”
There are a number of players that will be making their national team debut, Dudas, Wehrs, Dániel Szabó, Áron Reisz and Áron Könczei.
The Hungarian Squad
Goalies (3): BÁLIZS Bence (MAC Budapest), HETÉNYI Zoltán, RAJNA Miklós (Fehérvár AV19)
Defencemen (10): Jesse DUDAS (DVTK-Jegesmedvék), ORBÁN Attila, REITER Attila, SZABÓ Dániel, SZIRÁNYI Bence, VARGA Arnold, Kevin WEHRS (Fehérvár) KISS Dániel (Újpest), MESTYÁN István, POZSGAI Tamás (MAC),
Forwards (22): BENK András, KOCSIS Ferenc, KOVÁCS Csaba, KÓGER Dániel, NAGY Gergő, REISZ Áron, SÁRPÁTKI Tamás, SIKORCIN Ladislav, VINCZE Péter (Fehérvár), CSÁNYI Karol (Újpest), SOMOGYI Balázs, (DVTK), KÖNCZEI Áron (Debrecen), MAGOSI Bálint (Briancon, francia), NAGY Krisztián (MAC), SEBŐK Balázs (KalPa, Liiga)
Coaching Staff
Head Coach: Rich Chernomaz
Assistant Coaches: Gergely Majoross, Tamás Sille, Diego Scandella
Goalie Coach: Gary Clark
Schedule
Hungary-Norway: November 5th 19:00
Hungary-Denmark: November 6th 15:00
Hungary-France: November 7th 13.00