Cherno Readies his Squad
After two friendly matches coach Rich Chernomaz and the fans of Hungarian hockey have a much clearer view of how the squad will perform in the up coming tournament. On Sunday the national team had taken on Poland winning 4-2 and then beating Japan 7-0 on Tuesday. This was the first time to see Cherno’s strategy implemented in a live game. As previously mentioned the national team will be employing more of a bruising North American style in the 1-3-1 neutral zone trap set up opposed to the traditional 2-3 formation. In the match against Poland Cherno decided to go with the veteran Levente Szuper between the pipes. Poland took a 1-0 lead by jumping on a Hungarian mix up, the home team was still trying to get the 1-3-1 down. Szuper made the initial As the match went on Hungary settled down and you could see the lines jelling together. István Sofron, Gergő Nagy, Csaba Kovács, all finished with one goal, János Vas had a goal and an assist. Balázs Ladányi, and Viktor Tokaji had an assist each with István Bartalis registering two assists.
In their second friendly match Hungary faced a stronger Japanese side on paper then the Polish team they had played. This time around Cherno went with Zoltán Hetényi in net, the scoring started a bit slower in the match but once the first goal was scored the flood gates were opened. Except for Ladislav Sikorcin every forward recorded at least one point. The forward lines were clearly on one wave length with each other. András Benk opened up the scoring from a crisp pass from the young defenseman Balázs Gőz. Bálint Magosi, finished with one goal, with István Sofron and János Hári two each. Árpád Mihály had the seventh goal and tallied an assist. Gergő Nagy and Krisztián Nagy both helped in on the Magosi’s goal. Kovács, János Vas, and Márton Vas all had one assist, Bartalis had two with Ladányi having an incredible four assists.
After the match the team said goodbye to Bence Bálizs from the squad, Cherno still has to reach the final roster limit. What we do know is that the team looked much better against a stronger team, however Japan is not one of the teams favored to take either of the top two spots in the tournament. If they play this way then they have a good chance of bring home the gold.
Szabolcs Závodszky
Twitter: @Zavodszky
