Hungary knew that with a loss to Slovenia they would not control their own destiny, with a loss they would have to rely on the help of other teams and would have to start doing some math.
In the first period Hungary could not really get into the swing of things as they picked up some penalties, as through most of the Ukraine game the penalty problem continued. Fortunately Zoltán Hetényi stood tall and pulled the first twenty minutes off with not conceding a goal.
In the second period looked a little better as Hungary did not take any penalties, but Slovenia was able to score two goals off of counter attacks. In the opening minutes of the period captain Tomaz Razingar made it 1-0, when he put a rebound in between Hetényi’s legs. Four minutes later Slovenia doubled their lead again on a counter attack when Hungary turned the puck over after István Sofron lost the puck after taking a gigantic hit. In the ensuring rush Anze Kuralt took a shot from the left faceoff circle that ended up topshelf over Hetény’s left shoulder.
As the second period went on the game became more and more physical. Slovenia was still quicker than Hungary however Slovenia started to tire out.
The scoring chances started to come for both teams but Hetényi and Slovenian goalie Luka Gracnar were stonewalling all on comers. Hungary had two power play chances bit could not score, Gracnar saved a Dániel Koger shot from the goal mouth on the first power play. The puck movement was a lot better than against Ukraine but were not able to set up good shots.
In the end Gracnar held up the shutout.
After the game István Bartalis said “I can’t say that nothing was working because we were playing hard all the way through. We did what we were supposed to do, we played a lot better today than against Ukraine just the goals didn't come.”
Coaches' Corner
Matjaz Kopitar, Slovenia coach: “After the first day we were in a situation where we knew we would have to win all of our games. The game against Hungary was the second step in this process with the third one being tomorrow. I think overall we have better players, unfortunately we are having trouble scoring goals at this tournament.”
Rich Chernomaz, Hungary coach: “We had a number of chances, we controlled the tempo in the third period but we were unable to convert our chances and they did, that was the difference in the end.”
Standings (not counting Austria-Korea)
Japan, 6 points
Slovenia, 6 points
Austria, 5 points
Ukraine, 4 points
Hungary, 3 points
Korea, 0 points
Leading Scorer
Points: 4, Brian Lebler, Austria
Goals: 3, István Bartalis
Assists: 3, three tied
Photo: László Mudra