Coming into the game against Japan, Hungary knew that they would secure promotion regardless of what would happen in their last game of the tournament against Ukraine. What was known about the Japanese was that they are great skaters and their speed and quickness had been a problem for some teams throughout the week.
Getting the start in goal was Gergely Arany with Dániel Kornacker as the number keeper. What had become a theme during the week, Hungary was trying to avoid being mentally still in the locker room for the first half of the first period. Things did not start that great as Japan scored first in the opening minutes of the game, Keita Deguchi skated in all alone, went around a defender and lifted the puck over the left shoulder of Arany.
One of the aspects of Hungary’s game that has been working through the tournament has been the power play, and in the first period it came through as Csanád Erdély put a rebound past Yujiro Ishube to even the score. Both teams were skating well and were fully pressing the opponent. At the halfway point of the period Erik Keresztury took a pass in the right faceoff circle, skated through two defenders and slipped the puck through the goalie's legs for the first lead of the game for Hungary.
Unfortunately Hungary was not able to shake Japan from their coat tails in the first twenty minutes as Japan made it 2-2. Kosuke Umemora took a long shot that Arany came out to challenge and did make the save on the shot but was not able to control the long rebound that popped out to Umemora who successfully put his second shot past the Hungarian keeper.
After a relatively balanced period Glen Williamson and his coaching staff got the boys fired up as they come out and really stuck it to Japan. Just like in the previous twenty minutes Hungary got things rolling on the powerplay again. Krisztián Szabó skated through the slot and dragged the play with him, as he did this he freed up Erdély next to the right post, the far post from Szabó’s point of view, who made the pass back to Erdély who tapped it into the empty net. Hungary nicely cycled the puck around which paid off.
Less than two minutes later Japan turned the puck over in their attacking third and Keresztury made a beautiful breakout pass from his own blue line to Vilmos Galló who skated in got the breakaway goal and gave Hungary some breathing room. Hungary opened a three goal lead in the closing minutes of the period thanks to a mistake by the Japanese goalie. Keresztury skated down the right wing and tried to bring the puck on goal but it looked like Ishobe had pulled the puck in, but he never had control of the puck, Galló had followed the play and lifted the loose puck over the goal line to make it 5-2.
After the game Csanád Erdély said that they had to make changes after the first period: “We knew it was not going to be easy, so we tried our best and we came out hard but we did not win any battles. In between the periods the coaches told us to play like we did against the Austrians in the second and the third period, play harder and be more physical.”
At the start of the third period Japan switched goalies with Shotaro Kaneko moving to the net in place of Ishobe. For the first half of the third period Hungary was playing more defensive in trying to keep the three goal lead. After a turnover and a great pass Shoma Izume skated in on a breakaway, Arany come out of his crease to challenge him but Izume skated around him and cut the lead to two.
Japan kept the pressure on and trying to find a goal in any possible way but Arany stood tall.
The sixth goal of the game for Hungary was scored by Dániel Mazzag who picked up a loose puck on his blue line, skated in along the left boards, went in on net, pulled the puck over to the backhand side, sent the goalie sliding out of position and he cooly put the puck in the empty net.
The game was clearly not over as minutes later Izume scored his second of the period off a screened shot from hgh in the slot that Arany probably did not see but seven seconds later the lead was back to three goals thanks to Zsombor Kiss. Galló had skated in off the faceoff and took a shot the went wide, but because of an awkward bounce off the wall Kiss put the puck past the out of position goalie.
Later in the period as Japan was on the power play they had pulled the goalie to have the 6 on 4.Hungary was able to kill the penalty and eventually Galló completed his hat trick when he scored the empty net goal and pretty much ending Japan's chances of a comeback.
With the win Hungary clinched the gold medal and secured promotion to the next level, with a game against Ukraine still to be played.
“It was a very fast paced game against the Japanese. The game did not start the way we wanted it to. We fell behind early but we were able to get ourselves together. in the second period we showed that we were the better team, we were able to open up a three goal lead that we held throughout the game. It felt great to hear the final horn and knew that we are world champions,” said goalie Gergely Arany after the game.
Coach’s corner
Glen Williamson’s analysis: ”This was a real tough game. The Japanese have great speed and really strong for their size, they play really disciplined and are organized. We just kept on playing our game, got some breaks and our style of play, the power hockey came through. This was probably the fastest game for us. We got some great goals, great plays and great goaltending, the game was a lot closer than what the score showed.”
U18 Division 1/B world championships
Day 3
Standings
Hungary 12 points
Slovenia 9 points
Austria 6 points
Japan 6 points
Ukraine 3 points
Poland 0 points
Leading scorers
Points: 10, Vilmos Galló, Zsombor Kiss, Hungary
Goals: 7, Csanád Erdély, Hungary
Assists: 8, Zsombor Kiss, Hungary
Words: Szabolcs Závodszky @zavodszky