Hungary came with an undefeated record into the last match of the world championships where they were taking on Croatia.
Vilmos Galló who has had a great tournament put up Hungary 1-0 with Ronald Vokla and Áron Könczei getting the assists. Renato Platuzic tied it up as Croatia was on a two man advantage
The teams went into the first intermission all evened up at one, in the second period Hungary took over. In the first half of the second Hungary scored three goals to put the game out of reach for Croatia. Erik Keresztury and Áron Reisz set up László Ritó to them up by one. A Csanád Erdély goal put them up by two with the goalie Gergely Arany getting the assist, the third goal of the period was Ritó’s second of the game. The third period was the same as the second as Hungary brought the onslaught onto the Croatian goal. Right off the opening faceoff of the third period Krisztián Szabó made it 5-1 ten seconds into the period. Könczei made it 6-1 with Tamás Láday scoring the last two goals of the game and setting the final score at 8-1.
“We wanted to have a great ending to this tournament, the guys skated great. We were able to attack well and our defending was good as well,” said coach Rich Chernomaz after the game.
The first game of the day had Lithuania playing Netherlands for the silver medal in a very close and exciting game. Edgar Protcenko put up Lithuania 1-0 in the first period, Jordy Knoren made it 1-1 later in the period. The second twenty minutes was all Lithuania as they scored two goals to be up 3-1 after two. Domantas Cypas scored a power play goal and Daniel Bogdziul had a short handed goal to account for the two Lithuanian goals in the period. The excitement really took off in the third period as Danny Stempher scored in the first minute of the third period to pull the Dutch within one. Later on in the period the teams swapped goals with Paulus Gintautas and Raymond van der Schuit lighting the lamp for their respective teams and keeping it a one goal game. Netherlands pulled their keeper for the extra attacker in the last minute of play, which ended up paying off as Stempher’s second goal of the night sent the game into overtime. In the OT Cypas scored a power play goal to give Lithuania the win and the silver medal.
The second game of the day was Estonia and Romania facing off against each other. After a scoreless first period Pavel Kulakov broke the ice for Estonia to make it 1-0 at 32:57 into the game. Georgi Vassiljev made it 2-0 after the first forty minutes. In the early part of the third period Estonia went up 3-0 on a second Vassiljev goal, Romania was able to end the shutout when a Mátyás Bíró shot found the back of the net and set the final score at 3-1
Final Standings
1. Hungary 15 (promoted)
2. Lithuania 11
3. Netherlands 10
4. Estonia 6
5. Romania 3
6. Croatia 0 (relegated)
Scoring leaders
Points: 15, Daniel Bogdziul (Lithuaniq)
Goals: 7, Vilmos Galló (Hungary)
Assists: 10, Daniel Bogdziul (Lithuania)
Szabolcs Závodszky
@Zavodszky