With the final roster not set for the DIvisioon 1/A world championships, Team Hungary’s head coach Rich Chernomaz was still mixing and matching the lines to see the best line combinations for the winning formula.
Getting the start between the pipes for the first of the two games was Peter Sevela, with Zoltán Hetényi on the bench and Miklós Rajna being scratched. Also not making the squad for the game was defencemen Tamás Pozsgai and forward Attila Németh. The starting five on the ice was István Bartalis centering a line of István Sofron and Krisztian Nagy with a defence pairing of Tamás Gröschl and Bence Szirányi.
“It was a great honor to play with these forwards on the first line. I can feel that the line is coming together and I think that it is a good combination and we have the chemistry on this line,” said Krisztián Nagy after playing with Sofron and Bartalis.
In the first two minutes of play Austria was peppering the Hungarian goal but Sevela withstood the attack. Five minutes into the game Krisztián Nagy had an opportunity to score but just missed the goal. On the following rush Thomas Koch skated through the zone and put a shot on net that Sevela initially saved but Koch got his own rebound and shot out the top corner for the 1-0 lead.
Halfway through the period with Hungary on the power play Bartalis took a pass from János Hári in the left faceoff circle, stickworked his way through a crowded slot and passed the puck off to Sofron who fired a rocket past Bernhard Starkbaum to make it 1-1.
“I think that the power play unit worked well with the four of us forwards (Hári, Bartalis, Sofron and János Vas) and Bence Szirányi as the only defenceman,” said Hári.
After the powerplay Hungary kept up the pressure on the Austrians. As the period progressed the game balanced out with both teams having a number of chances to score. At the end of the period Starkbaum made a mental error, thinking that Austria was going to get a delayed penalty and started to skate off the ice when actually the penalty was called against them. Lucky for him Hungary did not get a shot off.
Early in the second period with Hungary shorthanded Sofron applied pressure to the Austrian goalie who was having trouble handling the puck. Sofron picked it up and as we was being hooked from behind, as he tried to wrap it around backhanded but the puck went wide. On the ensuing powerplay Hári skated down the left wing, passed it back to the trailing Sofron who one timed it into the back of the cage to make it 2-1.
At the halfway point of the game Austrian coach Manny Viveiros switched goalies with René Swette coming in for Starkbaum. At the 14:10 mark of the second period Austria was able to pull even at 2-2 on a goal from Manuel Ganahl, who skated along the goal line, made a slick move and slipped the puck five hole through Sevela’s legs.
In the opening minutes of the third period Hungary had a 5 on 3 advantage that they converted, Sofron took a pass from János Vas and snapped a shot past Swette from high in the slot. Throughout the early part of the period Hungary clearly looked like the better team having chances and a more put together attack. With just over ten minutes left in the game Austria scored their first powerplay goal of the game. Lebler had the puck on the right faceoff circle, threw it back to a wide open Martin Schuming who was wide open on the left faceoff dot and teed off on the puck that ended up behind Sevela.
Austria did not have much time to celebrate as they had fallen behind again 16 seconds after the tieing goal. The puck came back along the board to the top of the zone where Arnold Varga was waiting for it on the corner of the blue and fired a shot that the goalie may or may not have seen but either way it ended up in the net to give Hungary the 4-3 lead.
Unfortunately Austria was able to stay with the theme of that night which was coming back from being a goal down. Hungary trying to kill another penalty, Lebler took a high shot from right of the goal that Sevela saved but was unable to control the rebound and ended up spinning past him into the goal.
With the game ending 4-4 after regulation both teams had a chances to close out the game in overtime but no one was able to score and the game went to a shootout, which Austria was able to win after Sevela could not stop either of Lebler’s and Hundertpfund’s penalty shots.
“The 5-4 game was excellent for an exhibition game, we were able to see what we have been working on all week in live action. I could feel the past week in my legs as the game went on but I’m sure we will be ready in South Korea,” said János Vas after the game.
Hungary is back at it on Sunday at 18:00 against Slovenia, a team that finished 7th at the Sochi Winter Olympics.
Coaches' corner
After the game two things were clear, one that the penalty kill needs to improve and that Peter Sevela’s performance was not up to the standard that he has brought this past season. Goalie coach Gary Clark tried to sugar coat it but Rich Chernomaz went right to the point.
“He looked a bit anxious in the game, he did not see that many shots on 5 on 5, with him coming from the MOL League, he needs to get out and challenge the shooters more, he needs to come out of the crease and not staying in the blue paint as long, this is something we need to work on. It’s good it happens now and not when the games really count. There are some things to work on but overall good performance,” said Clark.
Chernomaz agreed with his goalie coach that Sevela needs to challenge the shooter more but he was also clearly not happy with the penalty kill: “Obviously the penalty kill was not that great. At times we did not have enough sticks in the lane but to have a good penalty kill it usually starts with your goalie, and we did not get any key saves today at crucial times. Peter was probably a bit nervous tonight. he has to challenge shooters more at this level.”
On the flip side Chernomaz liked what he saw on the power play: “Overall our power play was good, Sofron had a good game for his confidence, but we still have some things to work on next week.”
“This was a great exhibition game, there doesn't seem to big a difference between the two teams, in fact we do not look to be better than the Hungarians in any way. We will have a number of young players traveling to to the world championships but our goal is to win every game,” said Austrian coach Manny Viveiros after the game.