After a thrilling shootout victory in during the opening day of the IIHF Division 1/B World Championship against Poland Rich Chernomaz looked for their first win in regulation of the tournament against France.
As expected Chernomaz went with Dániel Kornakker in net as he gave Gergely Arany the day off after the clean sheet. The forward line combinations stayed the same as did the defencemen pairings as well. The opening minutes of the game were back and forth as both teams had chances to score, France set up their power play nicely and had a couple of shots on goal but were not able to put on past Kornakker. Like France, Hungary was not able to convert on the power play either. The first real Hungarian scoring chance came with just over five minutes left in the first period when Vilmos Galló weaved through the French defence but was not able to slip the puck past Victor Goy. The ice finally broke when Csanád Erdély took a cross ice pass from Márk Szaller and flipped a back handed shot twoards the goal that ended up bouncing past Goy for the 1-0 Hungary lead.
The second period was the same as the first that both teams were flying up and down the ice however there was a lot more excitement as referees whistle start to be in action more often. France was not paying attention and took a penalty for having too many men on the ice and Péter Vincze made them pay. Erdély passed to puck into the slot where Vincze one timed a shot past the right shoulder of Goy for the 1-0 lead. Minutes later France was on a 5 on 3 power play but were almost two goals down when Vincze skated on on a shorthanded breakaway, he looked to have beat the keeper but flipped the puck over the net. Hungary was able to kill teh two penalties but midway through the game Galló was called for boarding, and Maurin Bouvet ended Kornakker’ shutout. France tied the game at 2 when Robin Lamboley and Bouvet skated in a on two on one, Lamboley slipped the puck over to Bouvet, Kornakker had no chance to make it across the crease as Bouvet put the puck in the empty net. Luckily for Hungary France was called for boarding, Galló skated down behind the net on the power play, he fed the puck in front of the net where István Teborcs shot the puck past Goy for the one goal lead at the end of forty minutes.
French coach Lionel Charrier got his team fired up because they came out fired up as Guillaume LeClerc tied the game up at 4-4. The French team kept on the pressure as both team would like to avoid over time. The teams kept on going back and forth but the French team looked stronger with just under five minutes left in the game Arnaud Faure took a long shot that didn't look like Kornakker saw the shot and went into the back of the net for the first French lead of the game. Chernomaz pulled Korankker with less than two minutes left in the effort to tie the game and send it to OT. Iin the end Hungary was not able to find that last goal and after two games they have two points, it will be hard to win the tournament now but they still have a chance.
Coaches Corner
“Twice we took penalties when we were on the power play, you can't shoot yourself in the foot like that. The tournament is not over we still have teams to play, we have the youngest team in the tournament. we had some sloppy shifts, we had some good shifts the compete level was there.” Rich Chernomaz (source: Lea Darányi)
View from the ice
“We were the more dominate team again against France, hopefully we will be able to get energized from this for the rest of the tournament, it is a tough loss but in a world championships you can't dwell on games like this, now we have one day to recover” Csanád Erdély
“We need to concentrate more in the defensive zone, we give the opponents too many opportunities on the power play as well as the 2 on 1 and 3 on 2 situations. We can not get ourselves into situations like this.From now on out we will have to win every game” Dániel Kornakker
Other Results
In the early game of the day Ukraine was looking for their first points of the tournament against Poland. Poland had a 1-0 lead after the first period on a goal by Patryk Malicki, in the second twenty minutes Ukraine capitalized on a power play in the early minutes when Andrei Grygoryev put the puck past the keeper to even it up at 1-1. The third period was much like the second but this time Igor Merezko scored the power play goal in the opening minutes of the game.
Kazakhstan looked to win their second game of the tournament against Japan, Yevgeni Korolinski opened up the scoring for the Kazaks on a power play goal in the opening twenty minutes. The second period was all excitement Kazakhstan out scored Japan 3-2 and 2-1 in the third period. Arkadi Shestakov had a hat trick and tacked on an assist as well.
Standings
Kazakhstan 6 points
France 4 Points
Ukraine 3 points
Hungary 2 points
Japan 2 points
Poland 1 point
Scoring Leaders
Points: 5, Nikita Mikhalis Kazakhstan
Goals: 4, Yushiroh Hirano, Japan
Assists: 4, Mikhalis, Kazakstan
All information from the IIHF Division 1/B can be found here