Hungary takes care of Italy

2015.04.22. 13:07 |

After losing a number of important games to Italy in recent years Hungary finaly won and is one step closer to the A Pool.

After sitting out the game against Kazakhstan Miklós Rajna was back between the pipes, István Sofron was back in the lineup as well after serving his suspension. He took back his original spot on the right side of the first line with Frank Banham playing win János Hári and Balázs Sebők. This meant that Csanád Erdély was on a line with veterans Csaba Kovács and János Vas. Rich Chernomaz moved the defensmen around as well apparently not happy with what he saw on the tape against Kazakhstan. Dániel Kiss and Balázs Gőz were to rotate in next to Márton Vas and Attila Orbán was paired with Tamás Pozsgai.

In some ways the game against Italy was a must win, with a win Hungary would take a huge step towards promotion, a loss would make everything very difficult.

Hungary started the game great as they managed to keep Italy under pressure for the most part of the period. The Italians had trouble bring the puck out of their own end as they managed to only have one shot on net. Hungary scored the all important first goal on a power play, as usual Frank “the Tank” Banham took a pass from Andrew Sarauer and fired a rocket that Daniel Kóger redirected past Andrea Bernard for the goal. In the closing minutes Hungary doubled the lead when Krisztián Nagy won a faceoff in the Italian zone, back to Bálint Magosi who rifled the shot into the back of the Italian cage.

Rajna stood tall through out the second period, opposed to the first twenty minutes Italy had a number of scoring chances. Just past the midway point of the period Hungary had a powerplay that they were not able to convert on, as Italy killed their penalty they skated in on a 2 on 0 shorthanded situation that Rajna snuffed out to keep Hungary up 2-0. Hungary also had scoring chances however the period was highlighted by great forechecking and all out solid defensive effort.

The opening minutes of the third period started well for Hungary as they kept the pressure on Italy. Sofron made it 3-0 when he kept the puck from going out of the attacking third, skated down through the slot looking to snap it, with a flick of the write Hungary had a 3-0 lead. Just over two minute later the Italians had ended Rajna’s shut out when Brian Ihnacak took the puck down to the goal line and put it back in front, Alexander Egger flipped it into the empty net. Hungary had a chance to widen the score but were not able to take advantage of a five on three power play. Just for good measure Márton Vas taked on an empty net goal to make it 4-1.

Todays Lineup:

Kóger Sarauer Sofron

Sebők Hári Banham

Kovács J.Vas Erdély

Benk Nagy Magosi

Vincze

Gőz/Kiss Vas M.

Szirányi Metcalfe

Orbán Pözsgai

Rajna (Bálizs)

Coaches Corner

Rich Chernomaz-”Getting off to a good start and bringing a lot of energy through our defensive play caught the italians off balance especially on their controlled break out, when this happens we can create scoring chances. we knew from the drop of the puck this would be a battle we gave up a too much free ice through the neutral zone in the second and third period. We were able to score a power play goal and they were not. this was great confidence boost.

Stefan Mair-”We lost the game in the first period, I think some of our players were not ready for the aggressive style and the forecheck that Hungary brought. We were lucky that they did score more when we were taking time to pick up the pace.”

View from the Ice

Frank Banham- “It was a good start, we scored the first goal, we had a good game plan from, the start that worked well for us, we were fortunate to keep the lead. The goal was a great play by Magósi to Sarauer, their forwards collapsed which is perfect which gives me the chance to go into the slot and Kóger put his stick into it.”

Krisztián Nagy-”Our line stick to the plan and we basically broke all off their lines and we put shots on net. Right before the faceoff Magosi and I talked about making a change on the faceoff and it worked. You score about once in 20 or 30 chances.

The Hungarian Squad

Goalies (2): BÁLIZS Bence (Miskolci Jegesmedvék) RAJNA Miklós (Fehérvár AV19)

Defensmen (7): KISS Dániel (Újpest) ORBÁN Attila, SZIRÁNYI Bence (Fehérvár AV19) POZSGAI Tamás (Dab.Docler), GŐZ Balázs, METCALFE Tyler (Miskolci Jegesmedvék), VAS Márton (Löwen Frankfurt, DEL2)

Forwards (13): BANHAM Frank, BENK András, EREDÉLY Csanád, KOVÁCS Csaba, KÓGER Dániel, MAGOSI Bálint, SARAUER Andrew, VINCZE Péter, (Fehérvár AV19) NAGY Krisztián (Miskolci Jegesmedvék) SEBŐK Balázs (Hokki, FIN2) SOFRON István (Krefeld Pinguine, GER), VAS János (Slavia Praha, CZE) HÁRI János (MODO, SWE)

Coaching Staff

Head Coach: Rich Chernomaz
Assistant Coaches: Gergely Majoross, Tamás Sille, Diego Scandella
Goalie Coach: Gary Clark

World Championships Schedule

Sunday April 19

Hungary-Japan 4-2

Kazakhstan-Ukraine 5-2

Italy-Poland 2-1

Monday April 20

Kazakhstan-Hungary 5-0

Italty-Ukraine 2-1 OT

Poland-Japan 2-0

Wednesday April 22