With the Olympic Qualifying tournament starting on Thursday Hungary will be taking on Estonia, Lithuania and Poland in their effort to qualify for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Korea.
Rich Chernomaz has trimmed his roster down to what right now is 21 skaters and three goalies. One of the goalies will be cut from the game day roster but will still train with the team as an emergency goalie incase one of the two on the roster picks up an injury. With Balázs Sebők not being able to play and up until his replacement is announced the team will be training with 14 forwards, one will be cut before the first game.
As usual three of the assistant coaches gave a break down and what can be expected of the three position units during the upcoming tournament.
GOALIES
There was no surprise here as three goalies were called, the two goalies from the EBEL in Zoltán Hetényi and Miklós Rajna with Bence Bálizs rounding out the trio.
“We have had two scrimmages and I though all three guys were pretty sharp, the Fehérvár guys have been playing at higher level this season, which didn't go as it was planned. I think that we have a solid goalie situation here with the team,” said goalie coach Gary Clark about the men between the pipes.
DEFENSEMEN
On the blueline because of injuries the coaching staff had to reach down into the youth system but with Coach Chernomaz preaching a youth movement the last couple of years this was kind of planned for. With Attila Orbán and Arnold Varga out with injuries and Tyler Metcalfe sitting out this season, István Mestyán and Bence Stipsicz will be playing in their first senior IIHF event. Coach Viktor Tokaji talked about what he expects from the D-core.
“I think that the guys will play well, we have a mix of experienced veterans who have played at the world championships and we have some rookies as well, the backline will be fine. There is a nice balance with experience and energy. I think we have nice situations where we have people to pick from with players injured,“ said Viktor Tokaji.
FORWARDS
Up top Rich Chernomaz also has an eye towards the World Championships where he will most likely have two scoring lines and two checking lines instead of the usual setup of three lines dissenting in scoring with the fourth line needs to be the bruser line. With this in mind the coaching staff will have to look at who will take the place of Balázs Sebők, and they most likly will not place a scoring forward on the fourth line in the place of Bálint Magosi who is out with an injury as well. It will be interesting to see who will be on the fourth line with Krisztián Nagy and András Benk. The last cut will come down to one of three young players, Áron Könczei, Péter Vincze and Vilmos Galló. Gergely Majoross talked about what the fans will see from the forward unit.
“We have a lot of depth up top which means players who could be playing on the team will be left out of the team. I think that the level that we will be playing the forwards have the skill level that they will be adequate. During this short time span we will not be able to work on every aspect of our game, but the last couple years we have been using the same system so this will not be an issue for us,” said Gergely Majoross.
THE HUNGARIAN SQUAD
Goalies (3): BÁLIZS Bence (MAC Budapest), HETÉNYI Zoltán, RAJNA Miklós (Fehérvár AV19)
Defensemen (7): SZIRÁNYI Bence (Fehérvár AV19) KISS Dániel (Újpest), MESTYÁN István, POZSGAI Tamás STIPSICZ Bence (MAC), GŐZ Balázs (DVTK) VAS Márton (Fassa, Seria A)
Forwards (14): BANHAM Frank, BARTALIS István, BENK András, KOVÁCS Csaba, KÓGER Dániel, NAGY Gergő, SARAUER Andrew, VINCZE Péter (Fehérvár AV19), KÖNCZEI Áron (Debrecen), NAGY Krisztián (MAC), SOFRON István (Klagenfürt, EBEL) HÁRI János (Leksand, Eliteserien), GALLÓ Vilmos (Linköpings SHL), VAS János (Slavia Praha, CZE2)
STAFF
Head coach: Rich Chernomaz
Coaches: Majoross Gergely, Sille Tamás, Tokaji Viktor
Guest coaches: Mayer Péter, Jukka Kontsas
Goalie coach: Gary Clark
Strength and conditioning coach: Puskás Sándor
GM: Nagy Attila
Team Leader: Imre Lajos
Doctor: Majzik Ernő
Physio: Bagonya Imre, Sashalmi Tamás
Equipment manager: Nagy József
SCHEDULE
2016. February 11th
16.00: Poland–Estonia
19.30: Hungary–Lithuania
2016. February 12th
14.30: Poland–Lithuania
19.30: Hungary–Estonia
2016. February 14th
14.30: Estonia–Lithuania
18.00: Hungary–Poland