The Sapporo Heros were back on the ice under the direction of Pat Cortina as they took on the Czech Legends in a thrilling game that was a celebration of Hungarian hockey.
In 2008 Hungary won promotion from Division 1/B to the A-Pool after a thrilling winner take all game against Ukraine. The following year they took on the likes of Canada, Slovakia Belarus and Germany at the 2009 IIHF world championships. A lot has changed in Hungarian hockey since 2008 but one thing was sure that everyone enjoyed themselves.
The coaching staff of head coach Pat Cortina, Lajos Énekes and Diego Scandella we back behind the bench. Cortina was the head coach of the German national team last season, Énneses is the assistant coach for the Fehérvár MOL League team and Scandella is in his eighth season as assistant coach to Ambri-Piotta.
In the game that was played with old timer rules, there were no penalties, no hitting and the game was 3x15 minutes. Levente Szuper got the start in net, the Czech Legends went up 2-0 in the early minutes of the game but Hungary came back and took the lead. Half way through the game Cortina made a change in goal and pulled Szuper for Zoltűn Hetényi. The game that was filled with laughs and smiles by the players, coaches and fans alike ended up going to a shootout as it was tied 5-5 after the 45 minutes. Kriszitán Palkovics scored on the first attempt with a lighting quick snap of the writs. Hetényi stuffed the Czech attempt. For the second Hungarian attempt no one volunteered so lumbering defenseman András Horváth jumped off the bench to take the second shot, unfortunately he missed, and the Czechs tied it up with their attempt. in the last shootout round Csaba Kovács fired home a shot and Hetényi stopped the Czech attempt as the Sapporo Heroes were heroes again in the eyes of the fans.
“It felt great to be back with the guys, with the old team, it was a fun experience and a fun night.” Roger Holéczy after the game. “I thought this might be a long game after the first shift, I had to get back into the swing of things” said Holéczy with a laugh.
Since 2008 a number of players have moved on to the next phase of their lives. Interestingly every one is still involved in hockey, Omar Ennaffti is playing senior hockey in the Allen Hockey Cup, Viktor Takaji (MAC Budapest), Márton Vas (Fassa), János Vas (Slavia Praha), Hetényi, András Benk, and Kovács (Fehérvár AV19) are active players who have a chance to be back in the A Pool in St.Petersburg in May. Also still playing are Tamás Gröschl (UTE), Imre Peterdi (DAB), Balázs Ladányi, Artyom Vaszjunyin (Debrecen) and Dánile Fekete (Feldkirch).
Tamás Sille is an assistant for Fehérvár and with Gergely Majoross who is the head coach at MAC, they are on the current Hungarian national team staff. Horváth, Bence Svasznek and Roger Holéczy are youth coaches along with Balázs Kangyal who is also the GM for MAC. Also moving to the management position is Szuper with Vasas and Dr.Viktor Szélig with Briancon. Palkovics has moved in front of the TV camera and Gábor Ocskay is probably look down on what has become of Hungarian hockey with a smile.