Coming into the game Hungary knew with a win they are guaranteed not only to stay in the group but have a strong chance of winning and being promoted to Division 1A for 2015.
As Glen Williamson has done all tournament he has been flipping back and forth between his two goalies, getting the start against Japan was Dániel Kornaker.
Unlike the first two games of the tournament where it looked like Hungary did not come out of the locker room for the first period, they looked like they were awake and ready to jump on any mistakes that Poland made. Poland was turning the puck over a lot at the beginning, and Hungary finally took advantage of that at 6:44 of the first period. Hungary skated in on an odd man rush with Erik Keresztury putting the puck on to the tape of Zsombor Kiss who shot it on net, Mateusz Studzinski made the save but the rebound went right to Máté Gáspár who put it into the open net.
“This Polish team was not completely new for us, we have played against them in the past, we know that the physical style of hockey like us and we followed the coach’s instructions. The staff asked us to play all out from start to finish and we tried to do this,” said team captain Csanád Erdély.
Minutes later Hungary made it 2-0 when Csanád Erdély rebound back in for a powerplay goal. Before the period was out Hungary had opened a three goal lead Zsombor Kiss picked up a pass from Gáspár, skated through the slot and put the puck in the cage top shelf glove side. Neither team was playing particularly disciplined.
Both teams came out skating well but no real chances were being created, the game started to get aggressive as the minutes melted off the clock and it looked like with a goal Poland would be back in the game.
In the middle part of the period Hungary was awarded a penalty shot that Mark Szaller ended up taking but Studzinski made a save with his left pad to keep Poland’s chances alive. The penalties started to stack up for both teams as the game reached the halfway point. With Hungary on the penalty kill Roland Vokla jumped on a loose puck in the neutral zone skated in, faked the goalie out of his pads and slipped the puck into the empty net for the short handed goal.
Things got heated as Piotr Naparlo took out Kornakker’s, immediately a maylay erupted with Team Hungary rushing in to the defence of their goalie. Once the dust had settled Vilmos Galló received two minutes for checking to the head and neck as well as a ten minutes misconduct. Erdély was sent to the penalty box for roughing, from Poland Naparlo received 2+2 for interference and roughing with Kamil Sikora getting two minutes for roughing. With Hungary having a five on three advantage they went to work on putting the game out of reach.
The host country cycled the puck around until Tamás Láday teed up from the blue line and blasted the puck into the cage. Hungary closed the second period up 7-0 as both Erdély and Vokla scored their second goal of the game in less than one minute. Erdély flew down the left wing and snapped the puck past Studzinski for the sixth goal and Vokla made it seven .
After the second period Poland switched goalies with Barlosz Hucko going in for Studzinski but the situation did not improve as Hungary kept Poland under pressure for the last twenty minutes as well. Seconds into the period Erdély completed his hat trick on a nifty redirection that would that would be impressive at any level, for the power play goal.
“It was nice to get that off my back since people have been on me about not having a hat trick yet,” said Erdély with a smile after the game.
At 45:42 of the game Vokla also scored his third goal of the game on a power play as well. With just under five minutes left Olivér Herner made it a double digit lead when he took a shot from high in the slot that made it through. Poland look visibly exhausted both mentally and physically, with only seconds left in the game Galló made it 11-0 with an equal strength goal.
“I think we played better from start to finish than in other games, we slowed down a bit but after the little fight that we had the team got fired up and we started to light the lamp,” said Vilmos Galló after the game.
Hungary takes on Japan at 16:30 on Thursday, with a win they have guaranteed themselves gold and promotion to Division 1A.
Coach’s corner
Glen Williamson: ”Every game is 50/50 at the start. We were really focused, this was our best game from that point of view. The guys knew that they had to do this and they really got it that they had to be on task, they played really well as a team. It is a team game and with everyone having a chance to play it was easy to stay focused, and they are on a mission.”
U18 Division 1/B world championships
Day 3
Standings
Hungary 9 points
Austria 6 points
Japan 6 points
Slovenia 6 points
Ukraine 0 points
Poland 0 points
Leading scorers
Points: 6, Tree tied
Goals: 5, Csanád Erdély, Roland Vokla, Hungary
Assists: 5, Zsombor Kiss, Mark Szaller Hungary
Words: Szabolcs Závodszky @zavodszky