Following a closely fought tight game against Poland Rich Chernomaz and his team were back on the ice on Sunday against strong Ukraine team.
Miklos Rjana who played outstanding on Saturday started again on Sunday with Bence Bálizs being the backup again. Getting back in the lineup after sitting out the second game of the tournament was defencemen Dániel Kiss and Attila Reiter along with forwards Krisztián Nagy, Csanád Erdély and Tamás Sárpátki. Péter Vincze was scratched for the second game in a row, also missing the game was Zsolt Azari, Ákos Berta, Balázs Sebők and defencemen Bence Szirányi and István Mesztyán.
Chernomaz kept up shuffling the lines and it looks as if he found a combination that might stick as soon as Andrew Sarauer gets his citizenship papers taken care of. With Sarauer centering a line with Dániel Kóger and István Sofron. This line scored five out of the six goals in the back and forth 6-5 win over Ukraine.
In the first period both teams exchanged power play goals with Kóger scoring his first of three in the game, right from the start it was evident that this game was going to have penalties in it.
In the second twenty minutes Hungary was not able to pull away from Ukraine as every time they scored Ukraine would tie it up. Sarauer scored his first national team goal on a two man advantage however Ukraine came back. Sofron and Kóger scored the other two Hungarian goals in the period.
After forty minutes the teams were deadlocked at 4-4, in the last stanza Hungary was awarded penalty shots two separate times, they failed to convert on the first one but János Vas scored on the second one to put Hungary back up by one, this would be the only goal that the Kóger-Sarauer-Sofron line did not score. Minutes later Hungary had their first two goal lead of the game as Kóger completed his hattrick on an unassisted goal. Ukraine managed to score one last goal to set the score at 6-5 in the high scoring game.
Coaches Corner
“This game really had everything even if we didn't always play in beautifly. this was our third game in three day and the energy level wasn't at the highest peak. However compared to the game against Poland we were taking a lot more shots on net. We were able to create traffic in front of the net, Kóger was able to score two of his goals like this. It helped him a lot that he had a center like Sarauer who he was communicating with, and he has known Sofron for years. If Sarauer can get his citizenship this line could stay together for the world championships.” Rich Chernomaz
View from the Ice
“The three goals are not only mine but my line mates as well, infact our team in general played great. Our line played great we were able to connect I have know Sofron for years and I play on a line with Sarauer in our club team.” Dániel Kóger
Starting Line combinations
Kóger-Sarauer-Sofron
Kovács-Sikorcin-Magosi
Metcalfe-J.Vas-Benk
K.Nagy-Erdély-Sárpátki
Gőz-D.Kiss
Orbán-Pozsgai
Varga-Reiter
Gröschl-Hüffner
Rajna (Bálizs)
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
Friday Hungary-Romania 8-0
Saturday Hungary-Poland 0-2
Sunday Hungary-Ukraine 6-5