The theme of the week was new beginnings as number of players made their debuts their new teams in the MOL League. DAB.Docler’s lead has been trimmed down to one point over Miskolc however they have a game in hand, and Debrecen and Újpest have a four point lead over Ferencváros which in this league does not mean that much.
As always the Budapest derby was an exciting game, Újpest at one point lead 5-2 but Ferencváros climbed back to make it a one goal game but in the end they ran out of time, MOL League leading scorer Jozef Mihálik had two early goals, goalie Olivér Ágoston faced 51 shots as UTE continues to hold on to the final playoff spot. On Sunday UTE faced the one team that has been causing them trouble all season Miskolc, UTE scored the opening goal on a power play but Miskolc scored five unanswered goals, with Adrián Tóth scoring a pair and Bence Bálizs had a save percentage of 96.7%.
Miskolc started the week with a hard fought game against the expansion team Debrecen, all scoring happened in a seven plus minute span as a Zach Cohen and a Tihamér Becze goal sandwiched the lone DHK goal by Norbert Dancsfalvi. Bence Bálizs had another outstanding performance in net stopping 43 out of 44 shots faced.
For the first time since last years championship series Brasov was not only able to beat the defending champions Nové Zámky, but absolutely thrashed them 7-1. Brasov was playing without the suspended Juha Hietamaki, however making his debut was the first Korean ever in the MOL League Ki Hoon Han who ended the game with an assist. Zsolt Molnár had two goals and the veteran Árpád Mihály finished with three assist. On Sunday Nové Zámky traveled north with their tails between their legs for game at Csíkszereda. Nové Zámky got their winning ways back against HSC, after a slow start they pulled in the 4-2 win.
The match with the most drama leading up to it was a Sunday night matchup of Ferencváros against DAB-Docler. The game pitted two teams with tremendous pressure on them, the previous week the Ferencváros management threatened a pay cut if the team did not start winning, FTC went out and beat Nové Zámky and Miskolc, but lost to rivals UTE earlier in the week. In Dunaújváros the management this week also made the same threats if the team did not turn it around, which lead to long time forward Ákos Kiss to leave the team to FTC. DAB.Docler seemed to get warning as jumped out to an early 3-0 lead and held on for the 4-3 win, FTC scored their third goal with just one second left in regulation.
It was a great night for hockey in Transylvania as Csíkszereda traveled to Brasov looking for their second regulation win of the season, the visitors had a 3-1 lead at the midway point of the game but Brasov came back and secured the 4-3 win in the closing minutes of the third period.
Leading scorers
Points: 37, Jozef Mihalik (UTE)
Goals: 13, Keegan Dansereau (Miskolc), Mihalik (UTE)
Assists: 24, Mihalik (UTE)
Results
DHK-Miskolc 1:2 (0:0, 1:2, 0:0)
UTE-Miskolc 1:5 (1:0, 0:4, 0:1)
Brasov-HSC 4:3 (1:1, 2:2, 1:0)
Schedule, table and indvidual stats can be found here.
Remember all games can be view live on MOL LigaTV via molliga.eu, or follow live updates via the MOL Liga App, Facebook and Twitter @CEHL_MolLiga