Rich Chernomaz and the U20 Hungarian national team entered the game against Ukraine in a must win situation, with a loss promotion would be out of the question.
Chernomaz went back to Gergely Arany in net who had started the first game against Poland in the place of Dániel Kornakker. The coaching staff had to shake up the line somewhat since Kristóf Schmál was out with illness, with this the top forward line was Csanád Erdély, Ferenc Kocsis, and Péter Vincze. Krisztián Szabó took the place of Kocsis on the line with Erik Keresztury and Vilmos Galló.
The Ukrainian national team played pretty much the first half of the first period shorthanded as they picked up four minor penalties. Hungary cycled the puck well on the first couple of power plays but nothing came of them. On a five on three Erdély made a cross ice pass to Vincze who placed a shot from the left faceoff circle nicely behind the Ukraine goalie for the 1-0 lead. The period continued on like this as Ukraine sent another player to the box, right before the mid way point of the period Hungary doubled their lead when Vincze’s shot on net was redirected by Erdély, Áron Reisz was credited with the other assist. Like Hungary, Ukraine also converted on their five on three power play as well when Sergi Kuzmyk flipped a close rebound past Arany.
The second period started much like the first with Ukraine committing an early penalty nine seconds into the period. The two minute minors started to stack up on both sides however in the second period Hungary was the one that played seemingly short handed. With less than four minutes left in the period Hungary turned the puck over in their own zone, Anton Boikov jumped on the loose puck made a quick pass to Yevgen Tymchenko who skated in on Arany all alone and made it 2-2. With 29 seconds left in the period Hungary took back the lead when Kocsis won the faceoff to Márk Szaller who passed it on to Vincze who scored his second goal of the game
The third period was much more hectic as Ukraine was trying to tie the game up and Hungary was trying to hold on for the win. The undisciplined game continued for both teams, Hungary was tacking useless penalties all through the third period, Ukraine kept up the attack on the Hungarian net. In the end Ukraine’s drive payed off as Tymchenko scored his second goal of the game to even it at three with less than five minutes left in regulation.
In overtime Vincze could have ended the game on a breakaway but he was not able to get the puck past Eduard Zakharchenko, that was the only real scoring opportunity for both teams. In the shootout like against Poland, Hungary was down to their last shooter who had to convert to send it to sudden death and again Erdély stepped up with a goal. Unfortunately Vladyslav Luhovy scored in sudden death but Erdély was not able to bring the magic again, Ukraine take the two points and Hungary now has 3 points after three game and a paper thin chance of advancing but they will need a lot of help.
Coaches Corner
“After taking a two goal lead some of the guys thought that this was enough and it would be easy from here on out. We were not paying attention and we were committing careless penalties in the attacking zone. They were back in the game at the end of the first period. In the locker room I told the guys that at this international level its not like with their clubs that a game can end in 8-5, the games will be a lot closer at this level, they will be low scoring. This is why we have to be disciplined and not taking useless penalties falls into this category. We had four penalties in the attacking zone which is unacceptable, we let them get back into the game. Maybe we are not yet ready for this level of hockey, the teams are better than last year, there are great players at this level. The only way to win is the team plays within the system.” Rich Chernomaz
“After the second Hungary goal I told the boys that we have to score a goal before the period is out, which luckily we did. During the intermission I told the team to play the second period as if the game just started, that they should attack and just shoot at the net, just want the win more. This is the Ukraine team that I like to see, I am very satisfied with the way they played today. We just have to figure out how to play great from start to finish.” Igor Chibirev
View from the Ice
“We started the game great and we were up by two goals after 10 minutes, all the penalties came back to get us, they cut it to one at the end of the first and at the midway point of the game we were even at two. Thanks to a nice attack we were able to have a one goal lead going into the third period, the last period was very up and down for us, half way through the period they scored on the power play, in overtime neither team scored and again we had a shootout, this time around Ukraine shot better.” Gergely Arany
“After our loss to France we were able to get our heads straight, and corrected our mistakes. Only a victory was acceptable for us, with knowing this we jumped out to a 2-0 lead. At this level we can not make these kinds of mistakes and we can not accumulate the amount of penalty minutes that we did, this only makes our jobs harder. We let other teams have scoring opportunities and also let the control of the game out of our hands. A number of scoring opportunities were missed on both sides, this game could have been won early but they are 60 minutes long and you have to concentrate 100%. I would say with full confidence that this Hungarian team is “professional” enough and hungry enough to beat this Kazakhstan team tomorrow, this much I am sure of” Márk Szaller
Other results
In the early game of the day the top two teams heading into the third match day, Kazakhstan against France. Kazakhstan had the lead after the first period off of an Arkadi Shestakov goal in the closing minutes of the period. The two teams traded even strength goals, Guillaume LeClerc evened it up but Alikan Asetov put Kazakstan back up top. Kiril Savitski scored the last Kazakhstan goal to set the final at 3-1.
In the late game Poland took on Japan, both teams were desperate for a win, after a scoreless first period Yushiroh Hirano broke the deadlock midway through the game. The game really opened up in the third period as seven goals were scored in the final twenty minutes. Bartosz Fraszko scored two quick goals to put Poland up 2-1, Hirano quickly tied everything up again at 2-2. With ten minutes to go the teams were tied at 3-3 Radoslaw Sawicki made it 4-3 late in the game and Fraszko completed his hattrick on an empty netter that put the game too far out of the reach for Japan.
Standings
Kazakhstan 9 points
Ukraine 5 points
Poland 4 points
France 4 Points
Hungary 3 points
Japan 2 points
Scoring Leaders
Points: 7, Yushiroh Hirano (Japan)
Goals: 6, Hirano (Japan)
Assists: 4, Nikita Mikhailis and Stanislav Zinchenko (Kazakhstan)
Photo: László Mudra