They finished seventh at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, they have played in the A pool at the world championships last year and have an NHL star. Slovenia has established itself as a hockey country in the same category as Slovakia, Denmark and Norway. Fortunately for Hungary this is not the same team as the one that just played in the Olympics as eight players are missing from the Olympic team including goalie Robert Kristan and Anze Kopitar.
“It is important that before every game the players have the maximum focus needed. This is usually the hardest part. If a team has this then the scoring situations start to come with easy. I think that with their speed Hungary will be able to dictate the tempo of the game,” said Hungarian Women’s national team player Dorottya Medgyes.
Backstopping Slovenia will be the two headed monster of Andrej Hocevar and Luka Garcnar, both of them have played in the EBEL and will be familiar with the Fehérvár players on the Hungarian roster. Both goalies are talented and capable but with Gracnar only being twenty years old his future looks bright.
The defenseman for Slovenia have been the same group from year to year, with them picking up valuable experience not only at world championships but at the club level as well. Look for this group to be the strong point of the team for the next couple of years. Three players that the Hungarian squad will be very familiar is Mitja Robar, Ziga Pavlin and Andrej Tavzelj. These players have been on the Slovenian team for years, have played in the EBEL and have been teammates of Hungarian players. Robar and István Sofron played together in Krefeld this past year with Pavlin being a teammate with János Vas for one year and István Bartalis for the past couple in Troja-Ljungby and Tavzelj playing four Rouen this past season along with Vas.
“They have some excellent forwards still dispite a number of them missing. It is very important that Hungary pays attention to the small details and listen to what the coach says. They will have to concentrate for 60 minutes,” said Benjámin Nemes, Fehérvár forward, about the Slovenian forwards.
If you compare the where the Slovenian forwards have played to where the Hungarian its is almost identical. Just about all of them have playing experience in the EBEL, with player currently playing in Sweden, France and Germany.
The Slovenians have a lot more players that have played in North America in high level junior leagues, though. Bostjan Golicic and Gal Koren played in the WHL, Jan Mursak, Ziga Pance and Marcel Rodman in the OHL, Mursak also played three years for the Detroit Red Wings. There have been three players that have caused problems for Hungary in that past, Rodman brothers, Marcel and David along with team captain Tomaz Razingar.
The style of offence that this team plays is not big and bruising like a Canadian or anything that was seen against Ukraine but somehow they have managed to get under the skin of Hungary and managed to score goals. They are very fast and Hungary can not get cought on line changes because the speed could catch them.
Hungarian U20 and U18 forward Csanád Erdély made this observation about the style they play: “The Slovenians usually play in a combinative style that is based on being very skillful. The key to Hungary’s success will be to play physical and to get them out of their comfort level, if this happens they play more withdrawn.”
After the 3-0 loss to Ukraine the 5 on 5 hockey was not the problem, the coaching staff needs to find a solution to the scoring drought both on the powerplay and the equal strength situations, the coaching staff has maintained a positive attitude.
“We have not looked at Slovenia necessarily but to work on the situations that kept on recurring against Ukraine. We know that we can play better than we did against Ukraine,” said assistant coach Gergely Majoross. “I think that any of these teams at this tournament can be beaten and I hope we will prove this starting tomorrow”
Photo: László Mudra