For the 2014 Hungarian Cup the Borsodi Beer company has decided to be the naming sponsor with the Cup final four being held in Miskolc on the weekend of March 28-30.
Seven clubs have entered the battle for the Cup, SAPA Fehérvár AV19, DAB.Docler, Miskolci Jegesmedvék, Ferencváros TC, Újpest TE, Vasas SC and Debreceni HK. The first three teams mentioned are already through to the final four, Miskolc as the host team, Fehérvár as the defending champion and DAB.Docler is in as the defending MOL League and Hungarian champions as well as this seasons MOL League’s regular season champions.
The other three teams will be competing in a round robin preliminary group stage with the team with the most points advancing to the final four.
If DAB.Docler does not make it to the MOL League final then they will be the fifht team for the preliminary round and would have to qualify just like the others but in this case for the other two final four spots.
The points-system is the same as in the MOL League, 3 points for a win, 2 for an overtime/shhotout win, 1 for an OT/SO loss and 0 for a regulation loss.
It will be interesting to see who the two teams that did not play in the MOL League will perform against the MOL League teams in the preliminary rounds. Both Vasas and Debrecen had entered bids to participate in the 2013-2014 season, Vasas’ bid was rejected, Debrecen initially got the OK and even brought in some experienced MOL League players, such as Zoltán Pál but in the end the club decided to wait a year on entering the league.
There is a decent incentive to win the Cup since the winning team will win 1 million HUF along with the Cup, 500,000 HUF for second, 250,000 HUF for third and fourth place will get 155,000 HUF, which should go along way for a smaller club.
Borsodi Hungarian Cup
Preliminary round matchups
Debrecen – UTE
Debrecen – FTC
Vasas – FTC
Vasas – UTE
UTE – FTC
Vasas – Debrecen
Final four:
March 28-30., Miskolc
Words: Szabolcs Závodszky @Zavodszky
Photo: Géza Ady