All in All a successful winter weekend
After another kids tournament the puck dropped between KMH Budapest and Sabers Vienna in an women's Austrian league game (EWHL). The Budapest club was missing five players, four due to injury and one because of sickness, came ready to play. The Sabers took advantage of a power play to go up 1-0, Andrea Kiss tied up the game as Vivien Somogyi and Jelena Grkovic registered the two assists on the goal. The rest of the game was a hard fought battle but Vienna capitalized on another power play and took home the three points.
KMH head coach Csaba Gömöri said after the game "I think we were equal opponents on the ice for a team that is usually much stronger. The girls were excited for a gala like this. I was satisfied with what they produced on the ice, of course a win would have been nice but we held our own against a good team".
The night cap of the third day of the Winter Classic weekend was Fehérvár playing host to Klagenfurt. Fehérvár was missing a couple of players from their squad from Friday as Colton Yellow Horn will be missing some weeks because of suffering a concussion, goalie Bence Bálizs had to leave Friday's game because of a groin injury and Arnold Varga picked up an illness.
The game started out great for Fehérvár as the took a 1-0 lead on a penalty shot that Bálint Magosi converted late in the first period. The second period started out good for the home team as Árpád Mihály put his stick into a shot and deflected in the second goal of the night. Klagenfurt got back into the game as Markus Pirmann scored to make it 2-1. Five minutes later the game was tied at 2-2 when Thomas Koch scored a power play goal.
The two goalies stonewalled all the opposing teams as the game went into overtime where John Lammers scored and KAC took home the two points for the OT victory.
"Last year we played in a similar match in Ljubljana but the surroundings are a lot nicer here in Budapest," said KAC coach Christer Olsson after the game. Fehérvár forward Árpád Mihály was out at the Winter Classic all three days, two as a player and once as a fan. "It was great weekend over all, the kids had a great time and it was fun to see the old boys on the ice as well. The weekend was organized real well for the fans and the ice, the rink and the locker rooms were top notch as well. I hope this becomes a regular tradition here in Budapest!"
The Winter Classic weekend was success from the fans point of view and from the players as well. It will be interesting to see how this event will grow hopefully from year to year.
Szabolcs Závodszky
@Zavodszky