Penalties sink Hungary

After a dominating win over Korea coach Rich Chernomaz and the Hungarian national team was back again against Poland . Getting the start in the cage was Dávid Duschek making his national team debut along with Martin Turbucz who was putting the Hungarian national team jersey on for the first time as well. Backing up Duschek was Bence Bálizs with yesterdays starter Miklós Rajna sitting out the game. Also taking the day off was forwards Csaba Kovács, Bálint Magosi and Balázs Sebők, along with defencemen Attila Orbán and Tamás Pozsgai. Dressing today along with Turbucz was defencemen Attila Reiter, Adrian Hüffner and forwards Tamás Sárpátki and Krisztián Nagy.

Hungary looked somewhat slow out of the gates but settled down as the opening minutes progressed. Poland took advantage of their first power with Vladimir Dubek sitting in teh penalty box, Grzgorz Pasiut set up Aron Chmielewski for the one time from close range with Duschek having no chance to make the save. Polish goaltender Przemyslaw Odrobny was hot at the start stopping all shots and killing a 5 on 3 shorthanded situation. With just under five minutes left in the period Hungary got on the scoreboard as István Sofron took a pass from János Hári and put a shot on the net from the slot that Odroby stopped but was unable to hold onto the rebound that János Vas put into the back of the cage to make it 1-1. The two teams exchanged power play goals in the final two minutes of the opening period. Sebastian Kowalowka took a longs soft shot from teh blue line that trickled in through the legs of Duschek for a soft goal. With only seconds left in the period Dubek made a tape to tape pass down low to Tyler Metcalfe who touched it on to Ladislav Sikorcin who flipped the puck into the empty net for the equalizing goal.

The second period was probably twenty minutes that Rich Chernomaz would probably forget from his stint as Hungarian coach. The period started off with a penalty kill that Chmielewski took advantage of as he skated around Duschek for the goal, this prompted Chernomaz to pulled Duschek in favor of Bence Bálizs. One of the few times Hungary was not shorthanded Krzysztof Zapala took a pass from behind the net and buried it in the back of the cage with Bálizs having no chance. The wheels really fell off when in a span of less than a minute Poland scored two even strength goals with Bálizs seamingly standing on his head, making saves left and right but there was no defensive help to clear the puck from the crease. With Poland up 5-2 Chmielewski completed his hat trick, after some great puck movement Chmielewski shot out the top corner of the net from the right faceoff circle and ending brutal twenty minutes.

The theme of the game continued into the third period as the penalty minutes kept on stacking up but after getting into the game cold off the bench the third went better for Bálizs. With eight minutes left in the third period there was problem with the door on the Hungarian bench which caused a 10 minute delay while the door was fixed. It looked as if this was what Hungary needed as Karol Csányi took a pass from Hári in the slot and put it between the legs of Odrobny to make it 6-3. Minutes later Hungary scored again to cut the deficit to two goals when Sofron scored from the high slot. Poland ended up holding on to the 6-4 win.

Coaches Corner

“The penalty kill wasn’t great, their first goal was a point shot the goalie has got to  make the save, this was same for their third goal as well, those are saves that we needed to be made, and thats why we made the save. We didn't play hard enough in the second period, right from the start we were a step behind. We made a lot of mental mistakes and that comes down to the mind set,” Hungarian coach Rich Chernomaz

“I think the first period was a bit thought for us because of the penalty kill, we scored two power play goals, the second period was really good, we were taking care of the shots, moving the puck and passing great. We took unnecessary penalties in the third period, we have to learn from the mistakes,” Poland assistant coach Torbjörn Johannson

View from the Ice

“There was a seven-eight minutes where everything fell apart and we were making miskatkes at all positions, forwards, defencemen and at the goalie position. These were goals that could have been avoided, we tried to get back into the game and we did make it respectable. We can learn from these games since this is what they are for. This is unfortunate that we played like this in front of such a great crowd. The officials made some interesting calls on both sides, at least we were able to practice both the penalty kill and the power play,” Forward István Sofron

“It is not that great that you have to come in off the bench cold, you always have to be ready if you are the backup, I got on the ice during a low point but I'm supposed to come in and stabilize. It was hard game but you have to fight regardless of the score, if you can do that then we can get out of low points quicker,” Goalie Bence Bálizs

Korea-Italy 4-3 (shootout)

In the early game of the day the two losing teams played each other in an exciting game for the fans. Italy opened up the scoring early when they struck first 1:35 into the first on an Anton Bernard goal. Italy doubled their lead late in the period when Daniel Peruzzo found the back of the net. The second period Korea woke up when Sang Wook Kim scored an even strength goal. The excitement really picked up in the third period when Hyeok Kim tied the game up for Korea, but five minutes later Alex Frei gave the lead back to Italy. Late in the third period Korea finally took advantage of a power play when Bryan Young scored to send the game into overtime. After a scoreless overtime Ki Sung Kim won the game for Korea with a winning shootout goal.

“I thought we had the game pretty much in our hands, but we took dumb penalties which changes the momentum. The momentum went to their favor, it takes the enery and when you need that energy to make a push you dont have it. We stuck to our game plan but penalties killed us,” Italian coach Ivano Zanatta