In a two day single elimination Final 4 tournament Miskolc will be hosting the team from Fehérvár to see who will be the Hungarian Cup champion. In the semi finals Fehérvár visited the city Dunaújváros (DAB-Docler) to take on thier rivals, mean while on Wednesday in Miskolc the home team played Ferencváros (FTC) who made it to the final 4 through a small three team qualification tournament. Both results were not what the average Hungarian hockey fan would have expected. Fehérvár beat DAB-Docler handily 7-2 in a match that was expected to be somewhat closer. Miskolc took care of business at home against FTC in a match the was closer that one would have expected in a 3-0 win
Fehérvár decided to go with their number three keeper between the pipes with the young but experienced Miklós Rajna, who held his own and ended up getting the win. Árpád Mihály opened up the scoring when he was set up by the other foreign born Hungarian international Ladiszlav Sikorcin 3.28 into the game. One minute later the Canadian line of the visiting team put them selves ahead by two when Kyle Bailey and Frank Banham set up Tyler Metcalf for the goal. The second period was very action packed with six goals being scored in 20 minutes, Fehérvár having five of them. Just over a minute into the 2nd period the Canadian struck again with Metcalf scoring his second of the game from a pass from Banham. Fehérvár did not let up during the second 20 minutes, the last four goal that they scored were by Attila Orbán, Csaba Kovács (Márton Vas), Sikorcin (Mihály, András Benk), and Banham (Tamás Sille and Metcalf). After the period DAB-Docler decided to switch keepers Tamás Kiss came on for Peter Sevela who had just took his team to a MOL League title. There was one bright spot in the period for the home team, which was Viktor Papp getting DAB-Docler on the scoring sheet on a goal that was set up by Zsolt Azari. The third period was rather anticlimactic with DAB-Docler being able to score a second goal in the last minute of play, Jozef Mihalik was able to put the puck past Rajna, Imre Peterdi and Azari got the assists. Surprisingly there was no power play goals in the game, Metcalf and Banham were the leading scorers with three points each.
The other semifinal match up was a lot lower scoring in the one on the banks of the Danube. Less then a minute into the match Miskolc broke the ice when Gergő Nagy and Balázs Láda set up Szabolcs Fodor who beat the young Michal Mervay for the opening goal. Miskolc cushioned their lead later in the period with the defenseman Bence Szirányi scored an even strenth goal at the 13.01 mark, Vladimir Dubek and Martin Saluga had the assists. The second period had no scoring and it looked like the third would not have any either, with just under five minutes left in the game Attila Rafaj closed the door on FTC when he put the puck past the goalie on a pass from László Ritó, Márk Miskolci had the other assist.
Check back tomorrow when we will have more on the Hungarian Cup final as well as the bronze medal match.
Szabolcs Závodszky
Twitter: @Zavodszky
Both matches will be in Miskolc
Gold medal match: March 28, Fehérvár vs. Miskolc
Bronze medal match: March 28, DAB-Docler vs. Ferencváros