Fehérvár will play host to the 2015 Hungarian Cup Final 4 this weekend, with the semifinals on Friday and the finals on Saturday.
On Friday afternoon Miskolc, the MOL League and Hungarian champions will take on the defending Cup champions DAB.Docler in the early game, which will be followed by the upstart Debrecen taking on the host team Fehérvár. There are a number of good plot lines to follow during the weekend and it will be interesting to see how these stories unfold.
Debreceni HK
The “expansion” team in the MOL League was a pleasant surprise as they finished in fifth place after the regular season and made the playoffs. The team has a strong Russian core fused with veteran Hungarian players. Three of these veterans had played a large part of their careers in Fehérvár, Lajós Tőkési spent eight season with Artyom Vaszjunyin starting his career there and only leaving the club four years ago. Balázs Ladányi spent a part of his career there as well but left in a cloud of dust in the middle of the 2012-13 season. Another storyline is how the clubs has a chance of winning their first trophy in the first season of existence at the top level of Hungarian hockey.
Zsolt Wéber-”We do whatever it takes both on Friday and Saturday, we have been practicing hard since the end of the MOL League season. We will play hard against Volán and hopefully pull off the upset.”
DAB.Docler
After winning both the Hungarian title and the Hungarian Cup Dunajúváros had somewhat of a disappointing season. They finished one point behind regular season champions Miskolc but lost in the semifinals to Nové Zámky. News broke that the main sponsor Docler will not be funding the club and if a new sponsor is not found the team will be dealing with financial problems. This Hungarian Cup could be the last trophy the team will win for years to come. Head coach Don MacLean was let go by the management and former Dunaújváros coach Robert Spisak is behind the bench. One thing's for sure that the fans will not have a problem getting ready to possible win the Cup for a second year in a row, in the home of their cross county rivals.
Nathan Martine-”We want to obviously win, we haven't been waiting around for this long not to win. The team has been at an uneasy stage with the announcement of the team losing its sponsor for next year and the hiring of a new coach so this is an opportunity to end the season on a high note.”
Miskolc
The PolarBears have had a historical season in which they have won both trophies so far that they had competed for and would complete a treble that has yet to be accomplished in Hungarian hockey history. Coach Gergely Majoross has the chance to win all three Hungarian trophies in his first year as a coach that he had won as a player. The Miskolc was able to put together a roster made up of young Hungarians and fill the needs that they had with excellent import players from North America.
Gergely Majoross-”After the celebration we got back on the ice on sunday, we had a rough start, but we are getting better day by day. As most probably not all of us will stay in Miskolc next season, we look at it as a last chance in our life to do something special with this great group of guys. Whenever someone has special feeling to a team there has to be hunger for more, that is what I feel in the room. Winning the cup is 2 wins away and we only focus on the next one. When we win Friday we can talk about winning the cup.”
Fehérvár AV19
They are the host team and the strongest team in the country, last season they did not win the Cup and the management financially penalized the players. This season they have home ice advantage and mentally they are in a better place as well. Despite losing to the Vienna Capitals in the playoffs the team surpassed all expectations under the leadership of first time coach Rob Pallin. The team was also lucky that the young players who were forced to play more than originally expected because of injuries, really stepped up.
Kevin Wehrs-”I believe the team is in good spirits! It was definitely tough losing to Vienna but we are excited to get back on the ice this weekend for the Hungarian Cup in front of our fans!”
Schedule
Friday
16:30 Miskolc-DAB.Docler
19:30 Debrecen-Fehérvár
Saturday
15:30 Bronze game
19:00 Gold game