Because of history and politics any time Hungary faces Romania it is not an ordinary game. Unfortunately recently Romania is not a challenge anymore as Hungary easily won.
The coaching staff went with Bence Bálizs in net with Miklós Rajna as the backup, making his debut in the Hungarian national team was Csanád Erdályi who was centering a young line with Krisztián Nagy and Tamás Sárpátki on his wings. Scratched for the game was defencemen Tamás Gröschl and Adrián Hüffner as well as veteran forwards Csaba Kovács, Ladislav Sikorcin, János Vas and Andrew Sarauer, all of them will be playing in the other two games this weekend.
The first period as it was expected with Hungary peppering Patrik Polc, the Romanian goalie with 15 shots, neither team was able to capitalize on their power play chances with Ioan Timaru being called for hooking and Csanád Erdély sitting for two minutes for slashing. In the last minute of the first period Hungary broke the deadlock as the first line scored. Daniel Kóger slipped one past the goalie with Tyler Metcalfe and istván Sofron getting the assists.
The second period was a lot more high scoring as Hungary started to force their presence in the game, at just about the halfway point of the period Sofron set up Metcalfe for the power play goal. Minutes later Zsolt Azari also struck on the powerplay with Koger and Csanád Erdély setting him up. Erdély was on fire with passing the puck has he assisted on both Dánile Kiss and Koger second goal of the game. Hungary was efficient on the power play as they were three for three in the period.
The goal scoring machine continued where it left off at the intermission as Hungary scored three more before the period was ten minutes old. Kiss scored in the opening minutes later in a two minute span Sofron scored followed by a strike by Tamás Sárpátki. The final score was 8-0 where Hungary was abel to practice thier power play.
It was nice for Hungary to play someone other than who they see in practice but Rich Chernomaz and his probably did not take away that much from the game.
Coaches Corner
“They were not too strong of a team, if their goalie doesn't play great the score could have been 12 or 13-0. This is probably the youngest lineup I have ever had since I took over, but they played great and we defended as a unit. We were pressing and practicing the 1-3-1 system. It looks like everyone has been able to pick this up pretty fast. Of course the lineup will change on Saturday” Rich Chernomaz
“We only had 50 minutes of practice time before the tournament and we were missing 5 forwards. At the beginning we were playing very well but we were scored on in the closing minutes of the first period. Thats when we started to collect the penalty minutes and gave up scoring chances and goals. We were always a step behind the Hungarian team, they were stronger and faster than us. We need to learn from this game.” Kjell G. Lindvist
Starting Line combinations
Kóger-Metcalfe-Sofron
Vincze-Berta-Magosi
Nagy K.-Erdély-Sárpátki
Benk- Sebők- Azari
Gőz-Kiss D.
Reiter-Varga
Orbán-Pozsgai
Mestyán-Szirányi
Bálizs (Rajna)
The Hungarian Squad
Goalies (2): BÁLIZS Bence (Miskolci Jegesmedvék), RAJNA Miklós (Fehérvár AV19)
Defensmen (10): KISS Dániel (Újpest) ORBÁN Attila, REITER Attila, SZIRÁNYI Bence, VARGA Arnold (Fehérvár AV19), GRÖSCHL Tamás, HÜFFNER Adrián, POZSGAI Tamás, MESTYÁN Tamás (Dab.Docler), GŐZ Balázs (Miskolci Jegesmedvék),
Forwards (16): AZARI Zsolt (Dab.Docler), BENK András, KOVÁCS Csaba, KÓGER Dániel, MAGOSI Bálint, SÁRPÁTKI Tamás, SIKORCIN Ladislav, EREDÉLY Csanád, VINCZE Péter, SARAUER Andrew (Fehérvár AV19), METCALFE Tyler, NAGY Krisztián (Miskolci Jegesmedvék), BERTA Ákos (Debreceni HK), SEBŐK Balázs (Kärpät/Hokki, FIN), SOFRON István (Krefeld Pinguine, GER), VAS János (Slavia Praha, CZE)
Coaching Staff
Head Coach: Rich Chernomaz
Assistant Coaches: Gergely Majoross, Tamás Sille, Diego Scandella
Goalie Coach: Gary Clark
EIHC Schedule
Saturday 16:00 Poland
Sunday 16:00 Ukraine