One can say that Ian McDonald is the Wayne Gretzky of the MOL League. Yes it sounds strange however this past weekend the MAC Budapest forward broke a record that had stood for seven season.
In the last minute of the first period in Csíkszereda István Mestyán scored to put MAC Budapest up 1-0. This line in the box score might now be that interesting outside of Csíkszereda, MAC and maybe Diósgyőr fans. However if one takes a closer look they will see that Jeff Hayes and Ian McDonald were credited with the assists, which again is not so strange since they are the top to leading scorers in the league. How ever with that assist Ian McDonald broke a record that has stood since the 2008-09 season as he recorded his 82nd point of the season and thus passing Patrik Wallenberg for the single season point record in the MOL League.
Wallenberg, a Swedish forward had played for SC Csíkszereda for one season after joining the club from England, but had spent his career in top European leagues in Sweden and Finland.
Ian McDonald joined MAC Budapest this past summer from Briancon where he was teammates with Dr.Viktor Szélig. This season he has really clicked with his current linemates Tomas Klempa and Jeff Hayes. “It is really nice this year with both guys speaking english perfectly for sure, we all like to talk a lot about what is going on both in game and practice.” said McDonald when asked about the chemistry with his linemates.
It's no secret that McDonald was expecting a better start to his season, after all he is an import that was brought in to put up points, luckily he had a positive mind set and knew things would come. “I just kept on doing good things and success came, to be honest I didn't have a great start to the year. I think the coaching staff and myself expected more, but I kept working on my game, watching video, talking with my linemates on what makes us successful and it seemed like after the international break it all just took off and haven't looked back since.”
With the first year team sitting tied for first place with Diósgyőr the topic of what to expect during the rest of the season was also came up in conversation. “I hope big things, all of the individual awards and achievements are nice but the one we really want is a couple months away!”
