On the third match day of the U18 Division 1/A World Championships Hungary took on the favored Belarusians.
Sticking to the original plan, coach Glen Williamson went back to Gergely Bors in net, missing from the team was Gábor Bugár who picked up a small injury during the game day skate. Hungary started the game well but were unable to score, Belarus had an excellent penalty kill as both times in the period Hungary was able to set up their power play but the shots never reached the goal. After killing a penalty, late in the first period Donát Szita put the puck past Alexander Osipkov for the 1-0 lead.
In the opening minutes of the second period Hungary opened a 2-0 lead when Szita put a shot on net that Osipkov blocked but Bence Stipsicz was there to bury the rebound. The two goal lead didn’t last long as Alexei Patsenkin cut the lead in half not even a minute later. Not long after that Yevegni Astankov had evened the game up at 2-2. Belarus converted a five on three power play and minutes later they scored their fourth goal of the period.
The last twenty minutes were not any better, Ilya Sushko scored his second power play goal of the game. Bulgaria scored another two goals in the first half of teh third period to set the final score at 7-2. Hungary will have to most likely win their last two games if they want a chance at staying in the group.
Coaches Corner
Glen Williamson-”We played well in the first and middle of the second period, we got into some penalty trouble and they picked up the momentum, they are a very skilled team and they took advantage of the opportunities. We never gave up and our goalie played great, the score wasn't accurate of the first half but they really gave it to us in the second half of the game.”
Yevgeni Butskevich-”We took Hungary lightly in the first period, we talked and shook up the lines which helped. We are still on track to achieve our goal and that is to win the group.
View from the Ice
Donát Szita-”That I played that doesn't really matter since we lost, after the first period I really thought that we would win the game but unfortunately this wasn't how it ended up.”
Standings
Denmark 8 points
Belarus 6 points
France 5 points
Kazakhstan 3 points
Norway 2 points
Hungary 0 points
All other info about the world championships can be found here.
Roster
Goalies (2) Gergely BORS (Fehérvár Av19), Bence KISS (Miskolc)
Defencemen (7) Florián SÁNDOR, Dávid SZABÓ (Fehérvár AV19) Bence STIPSICZ, Gergely TÓTH (MAC Budapest) Dániel SZLAMA (Vasas) Zsombor GARÁTH (Boston Bandits, EHL) Ferenc SIMOTICS (Sparta Praha, CZE)
Forwards (15) Gábor BUGÁR, Antonino SARCIA (MAC Budapest) Máté GÁSPÁR, Martin SÁGI (Linz, AUT) Viktor TÖRÖK (Vasas) Bálint Horváth (Troja/Ljungby, SWE) Patrik KISS, Ákos NAGY, Andor PÉTER, Donát SZITA, Dániel VIZI (Fehérvár AV19) Zsombor KISS (Bern, SUI) Kevin SZABAD (Vienna Capitals, AUT)
Coaching Staff
Head Coach: Glen Williamson
Assistant coaches: Szabolcs Fodor, Péter Mayer, Rastislav Ondrejcik, Bence Svasznek
Photo: István Derencsényi