Going into the tournament the Hungarian players knew that they had to win against the Netherlands if they wanted to win the tournament and win promotion to Division 1/B. “We know that the game against the Netherlands will be a hard one,” said Krisztián Nagy before the World Championships.
The game did not start well for Hungary as Netherlands went up 1-0 when Tony Ras scored a power play goal. The Dutch held the lead for about ten minutes, when Erik Keresztury picked up a loose puck and put it in the cage to even it up at one. Less than a minute later Áron Könczei scored to make it 2-1, Balázs Sebők and Vilmos Galló were credited with the assists.
In the second period Hungary went up by two as Áron Könczei set up Bence Stipsicz for the goal. Raymond van der Schuit pulled the Dutch back within one, with a goal just past the midway point of the game. Later in the period Hungary was able to pull away with two goals, one from the stick of Galló during a PP and another from Gergely Korbuly to put Hungary up 5-2 after two periods.
Hungary was able to close out the game in the third period with two more goals, Csaba Erdély had a power play goal and Galló his second of the night. With the win Hungary gained promotion to the next level for 2014 with one more game left in the tournament!
“Against the Dutch we have played the most physical game so far, the guys played great, they played hard and fought,” said head coach Rich Chernomaz after the game, “They did everything to win, the keys to the game was that we scored goals at the right time, and we were very good on the power play.”
The first game of the day was Lithuania tacking on Romania. Lithuania jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first minute of play on a Aimas Fiscevas goal, before the five minute mark Lithuania was already up 3-0. Ilja Cetvertak and a second Ficevas goal, both on the power play, looked to give Lithuania the game. A Szabolcs Hildebrand PPG pulled Romania back to within two but that was the closest they would get. Edgar Protcenko scored one more in the first and to put the game out of reach for Romania, in the second period Lithiania scored one more off the stick off Fiscevas to complete the hat trick and to set the final score at 4-1 and the win.
Croatia took on Estonia in a close one to close out the day. The game was scoreless all the way till late in the first period when Ivan Jankovic scored a PPG to give Croatia the lead. At the 8:09 mark of the second period Estonia was able to tie it up as Michael Tugo put the puck in the back of the net. Croatia was awarded a penalty shot that they could not convert and the game stayed tied up at 1-1 until about the midway point of the third period. Ragner-Hindrek Russ broke the deadlock and Silver Kerna scored a late goal as the game ended up 3-1 in the favor of Estonia.
Szabolcs Závodszky
@Zavodszky