The pucked dropped in the MOL League in great fanfare in the Tüskecsarnok as MAC Budapest hosted Újpest for their first game in the league.
The home team fans game out in droves to see their team's first game in the league, however the Újpest fans came out as well. As expected Bence Bálizs was in net for MAC with Slovenian import Ales Sila was guarding the net on the other side. MAC had puck possession for most of the first 10 minutes of the game but UTE was the one that scored the first goal of the season when in the 13th minute when Benjámin Nemes slipped a close shot past Bálizs
The first half of the game was surprisingly disciplined as the first penalty did not come until the 26th minute of play when Martin Turbucz was sent to the penalty box for slashing. MAC cycled the puck around but they were unable to convert their first power play. This was not different for UTE as they didn’t score on their first powerplay either. MAC tied the game up minutes past the halfway point when Drew Olson sprang Dezső Roczanov for who skated in all alone to make it 1-1.
The teams headed into the third period even at one, as the period went on the visiting team was visible tired, it also didn't help that big time scorer Teemu Elomo was a late scratch because of an injury. In the opening minutes MAC took the lead on an Ian McDonald goal and scored two more times in a four minute span to pull away from UTE. Ádám Hegyi was not able to keep the puck in the zone on a powerplay, Kriszitán Nagy jumped on the loose puck, and skated in on Sila, the UTE goalie made the initial save but Nagy flipped the puck past the goalie for a short handed goal to make it 3-1. Jeff Hayes scored exactly a minute later to make it 4-1, Nagy scored his second goal of the game which also was the last one for the debuting team. Jozef Mihalik banked a shot off of Attila Németh that squeaked through Bálizs to set the final at 5-2.
Coaches’ corner
Gergely Majoross:We were a bit tense at the start of the game, but after all this is our first match of the season and it was in front of a home crowd. There were a lot of questions leading up to the game, will the arena pass all the lighting be, will there only be 60 people showing up or maybe 2,560, but luckily everything went off without a hitch. Mentally you need to be in the same state as well, we had 8-9 guys who were playing in an environment like this for the first time. We had a number of great looks and luckily we used most of them, we stayed within the game plan. Our first goal was good because it calmed us down and by the third period we were playing great.
Zoltán Szilassy: The was a great example that after that a team played well for 40 minute but after that they fell apart. We played well when we could get the puck down low and we could create chances. We came out flat in the third period and we were not able to support the player with the puck when we tried to set up. I believe these are all goals that could have been avoided. We will work on taking care of our mistakes.
Icehockey.hu also talked to freshly minted assiatnt captain and teh socrer of two goals Krisztián Nagy. “I had a bigger responsibility than usual since I am one of the assistant captains this season. I was hoping to play up to the expectation and help the team as much as I can. Todays game was a great start to the season, we didn't dominate from start to finish but we didn't give up, we worked hard. The first period didn't go so smooth but we played well in the second and third periods.”
Photo: László Mudra