Hungary had a chance to pull away from the rest of the field if they could beat China on the third match day of the World Championships.
Hungary took on the host team China, one of the favorites to win the tournament. Coach Tibor Marton stuck with the hot goalie as Anikó Németh was in net against China. In the first period with Franciska Kiss-Simon in the penalty box China scored on their first power play with Lu Wen scoring the goal. China held onto the lead for the rest of the period until the final minute when Réka Dabasi tied it up and sent the teams into the first break at 1-1.
The game didn't stay tied for long as China retook the lead in the first minute of the second period Minghui Kong put the puck past Németh. Later in the period Hungary game China a two man advantage, it only took the home team 11 seconds to capitalize as Baiwei made it 3-1. Hungary kept on shooting itself in the foot throughout the period as they kept on taking penalties, and China kept on taking advantage of them. The last five minutes were a bit crazy as Baiwei scored her second goal of the game to make it 4-1 but Franciska Kiss-Simon cut it to a two goal lead on a Hungarian power play. The second intermission was going to be crucial to see how coach Tibor Martin and his coaching staff would be able to shake up his team get turn the game around.
Things did not go any better in third period as China scored at the 50 minute mark of the game to make it 6-2 and a Baiwei completed her hat trick to make it 7-2. In one last breath of effort Dorottya Medgyes scored a third Hungarian goal to set the final at 7-3. By taking a look at the box score one will see that penalties was the biggest reason why Hungary came up short.
Tibor Marton- “I asked the girl to start the game well and they did which was great in front of 1,500 home fans. We could have already decided the game in the first period with the way we were playing. We were playing in a calm fashion and we were playing with in our system. Throughout the rest of the game we were working hard but unfortunately we were not too disciplined. We played about twenty minutes of the game a man down and there were a number of five on threes as well. If we want to be successful we can't give the opponents 20 power play minutes in a game. Our penalty kill was not working the best today, today the smarter team won.”Standings
Slovakia 8 points
China 7 point
Hungary 6 points
Netherlands 5 points
Italy 1 point
North Korea 0 points
Schedule, stats, standings and all other information about the world championships can be found here.
Roster
Goalies (2): NÉMETH Anikó (KMH) POLTZER Renáta (KMH)
Defensemen (8): KISS-SIMON Franciska (Belije Medvedji) CSISZER Sarolt, MEDGYES Dorottya (Marilyn) NÉMETH Bernadett, ODNOGA Lotti, TÓTH Enikő, TRENCSÉNYI Kitti (KMH) MOLNÁR Mónika (Manhattanville College)
Forwards (12): BRGLES Nóra (SDE Stockholm) JÓKAI SZILÁGYI Zsófia (MSSK Pitea) DABASI Réka, RÓNAI Alexandra, SOMOGYI Vivien, UNGÁR Rebeka (KMH), GOTTLIBET Zóra, HORVÁTH Tifani, KISS Andrea, PINTÉR Hanna, PINTÉR Lili (Marilyn) JÓKAI SZILÁGYI Kinga (Sportország)
Coaching staff
Head coach: Tibor Marton
Assistant coaches: Norbert Buzás, Dwayne Gylywoychuk
Goalie coaches: Zuzana Tomcikova