U20 opens WC with a win vs Korea

Rich Chernomaz and the U20 national team took their first step towards winning gold at the Division 2/A world championships with a win against Korea.

Gergely Arany was the starting goalie for the game and Korea countered with Donghyun Kim. The game started off slowly as neither team capitalized on their first power play chances. Hungary went up 1-0 in the first period when Zsombor Kiss put the puck into the back of the net, less than a minute later Hungary had doubled their lead when Dávid Jászai set up Vilmos Galló for the goal. In the second period Hungary was giving Korea power play opportunities but they were not able to take advantage of them, however did, 34 minutes into the game Csanád Erdély scored off of a pass from Martin Sági to make it 3-0. With just under two minutes left in the period Korea was able to break the shutout that Arany had going, in the closing seconds of the period Hungary was back up by three after Erdély scored his second of the game. The third period was all Hungary as they closed the door on Korea. Galló made it 5-1 and minutes later Erik Keresztury and Márk Szaller scored 8 seconds later. Korea switched goalies as Heetae Yang came in. In the closing minutes the two teams exchanged goals as Bence Bödök scored the 8th Hungarian goal and Byung Gun Kim the second Korean. After the game Galló was named player of the game for his two goals and two assists.

Lineup

Keresztury, Erdély, Galló

Zs.Kiss, Bödök, Terbócs

Antal, Sági, Gáspár

Vizi, Mazzag, Szita

Szaller, Vokla

Stipsicz, Jászai

Garát, Herner

Kovács Herszényi

Arany (B.Kiss)

Coaches' Corner

Rich Chernomaz: It was a closer game than the score reflected, seconds before the end of the second period the score was 3-1, that was probably closer to reality. Overall we showed great team work, our power play worked well so did our penalty kill. We could have played better in teh first half of the game. We created chances off of our forcheck. Arany was oustanding in net and the team worked hard.

View from the ice

Vilmos Galló: We started off a bit slow, but we picked up the pace in the second period, the goals started to come and we were able to win the game.

Márk Szaller: I am happy for the multiple goal win against Korea, we have taken the first steps towards winning the tournament. We didn't execute at a 100% but it is always hard to get ready for the first game of a world championships, but we dominated the game from the 10th minute. Our penalty kill was working well and our goaltending was great as well. Tomorrow we face Holland less than 24 hours after this game.