On the second day of the three day EIHC tournament in Gdansk Hungary played the host team of Poland and came from behind to claim a 2-1 victory.
"It was very important for us to win and to give the youngsters a good experience," said Csaba Kovács who tied the game at one. "It's essential for them to see how enjoyable it is to win. The morale is good, everbody works hard. The young guys need a bit of an experience and confidence to dare to do their stuff. We try to help them integrate and develop."
The lineup that head coach Rich Chernomaz went with contained only eight players from last years world championship team. Along with the players that did not make the original team Cherno decided to scratch goalie Zoltán Hetényi, defenseman Ádám Hegyi and the two veteran forwards Balázs Ladányi and Árpád Mihály. Taking their place in the lineup were first time national team members Attila Reiter and Krisztián Dósa on the blue line and Ferenc Kocsis joined the forward unit. Peter Sevela got the start in the cage with Miklós Rajna as the number two.
The first period started relatively slowly with the only excitement being that both teams had one power play, Nikandrosz Galanisz was called for a delay of game and Jakub Wanacki also sat for two minutes. Poland outshot Hungary 11 to 5 in the period and one of those eleven shots made it 1-0 for the home team. Poland took the lead in the last minute of the first period when Balázs Gőz lost the puck in his own end, at first it looked like Sevela could save the situation but when he pokechecked the puck, the puck squirted in the corner where Aron Chmielewski made a pass into the slot to Grzegorz Pasiut fired a wrist shot that beat Sevela for the goal.
The first 16:11 of the second period was much like the first with both teams having chances but neither scoring. Sixteen minutes in Bálint Magosi picked up a pass from Gőz and shot in on net where Csaba Kovács put the rebound past Przemyslaw Odrobny for the tieing goal. In the last minute of the period Hungary was on the PP and Sevela made a pass to Bence Szirányi who brought up the puck in the rush, skated into the zone, deked past a defender and put a nice shot on net that Odrobny had no chance of saving and gave the visitors a 2-1 lead as the teams headed into the changing rooms.
After all the excitement of the second period Poland kept on going but no goal was scored as Sevela saved 32 out of 33 shots for the game. There was only one penalty in the period as Ferenc Kocsis was called for holding. In the middle of the period things got slightly chippy between Adam Baginski and Csaba Kovács like last time around.
"We played a very disciplined and very structured game and got a good effort from everybody," said Chernomaz after the game. "Everybody was on the same page. The second period made the difference when we played very well, forced them to turn the puck over. Sevela had a very good game and we just played real simple that's why we were so effective."
In the earlier game of the day two A level teams, Italy and Belarus played a close game that resulted in a 2-1 win for the Italians. Number two keeper Andreas Bernard got the start in cage for Italy. Belarus went up 1-0 on a Geoff Platt goal, Italy scored a goal in the second and also in the third period, first by Brian Ihnacak and the second goal coming off the stick of Armin Heffler.
On Saturday Hungary will be playing Italy who in recent years has become their rival, in the early game. After playing two matches all four teams are tied on three points each with every score being 2-1.
EIHC-tournament, Gdansk, Day 2
Poland-Hungary 1-2 (1-0, 0-2, 0-0)
Goals: 19:41: Pasiut (Chmielewski, 1-0). 36:11: Kovács Cs. (Magosi, Vas J., 1-1). 39:17: Szirányi B. (Sevela, 1-2)
Italy-Belarus 2-1 (0-1, 1-0, 1-0)
Standings: 1. Belarus, Hungary, Italy, Poland 3 points each (3-3)
Words: Szabolcs Závodszky @Zavodszky
Photo: László Mudra