After the first day of the world championships Hungary was in first place by itself and looked to keep it that way against Italy.
Hungary took on Italy, the team that won promotion into the group the previous year. It was important for Hungary to stay patient and stick the game style that the coaching staff had come up with. After facing less than ten shots against North Korea Anikó Németh was back in the net against the Italians. In the first twenty minutes Hungary looked like the stronger team but the score stayed deadlocked at 0-0 after the first twenty minutes.
In the second period Hungary was on their third power play of the game when Andrea Kiss took a pass Dorottya Medgyes and put the puck past Daniela Klotz. the lead didn’t last long, with Lotti Odnoga sitting in the penalty box for interference Italy pulled even when Valentina Ricca scored a powerplay goal. Italy woke up in the second period as they put 15 shots on goal, of which Németh stopped 14.
Hungary knew that in the third period that they would need to take advantage of the first mistake that Italy made if they wanted to win the game. It didn't take long as Medgyes scored four seconds into the first power play of the third period to give Hungary a 2-1 lead. Németh stood tall the rest of the way as she stopped 30 out of 31 shots faced in a hard fought win against Italy.
Coaches Corner
Tibor Marton-“We had more scoring chances and were the stronger team, aside from the last ten minutes of the second period we controlled the game from start to finish. From the point of view of playing with in our system we played much better compared to yesterday. In hockey the special teams is very important, both the power play and the penalty kill as well. Today we converted on 50% of our power plays which is great and killed 75% of the short handed situations as well. Italy was a very strong team but we worked hard and it payed off. The last two days we did not practise because of our early games, we will have an on ice session to iron out some of the problems.”
Standings
Hungary 6 points
Slovakia 5 points
China 4 point
Netherlands 2 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