The third match of the under 20 World Championships for Hungary was the national team of Estonia.
Estonia came into the match with zero points whereas Hungary had two wins.
In the first period at 13:03 Tamás Sárpátki took a pass from Áron Reisz and skated down the right wing and in front of the net where he put the puck past the Estonian keeper, Daniil Seppen, Krisztian Szabó was credited with the other assist. Early in the second period Estonia tied it up when Andreas Kato took a pass from Konstantin Ljubobratets and shot the puck from the slot that got past goalie Gergely Arany. Just over two minutes later Hungary cycled the puck around on the power play when Balázs Sebok passed the puck to Sárpátki who got the puck past the out of position Estonian keeper to Vilmos Galló. Galló was standing at a wide open goal mouth and put the puck into the empty net. Hungary went up by two when again on the power play Krisztián Nagy found Sárpátki down low who stuffed the puck past Seppen for his second goal of the game.
Hungary made it 4-1 with a beauty of goal as Sárpátki came down the right wing dropped the puck for Reisz and positioned himself near the right post where Reisz found him. The Estonian keeper made a move to the puck and left the back door open, Sárpátki found Galló again in front of the empty net for his second of the game. Hungary kept the charge on the Estonian goal as Nagy picked up the loose puck in front of the net and flipped it past Seppen.
The third period started with Estonia switching goalies, Seppen was benched in favor of Roland Bugai. Estonia was able to get one goal back scored a PPG from low near the goal, Georgi Vassiljev found the back of the cage to make it 5-2. The rest of the third period was all Hungary as László Ritó stole the puck and scored a shorthanded goal. Two minutes later Áron Könczei and Tamás Láday set up Galló for his third of the night and to make the score 7-2. Late in the third period Balázs Sebők took a pass from Galló, skated along the goal line and stuff the puck through the pads of Bugi.
The first match of the day was Croatia against Lithuania. Marko Sakic gave Croatia the early 1-0 lead but Paulius Gintautas scored as Lithuania quickly tied the game 1-1. Lithuania closed the first period with a one goal lead thanks to a Daniel Bogdziul goal. In the second period the two teams swapped goals with Bogdziul scoring his second of the game and Bruno Kegalj scoring for Croatia. In the third period Lithuania was able to close the door on the game as Bogdziul completed his hat trick and Edgar Protcenko added one more for good measure.
The late game pitted an undefeated Dutch team against Romania. The first fifty minutes of the game was close with the two teams being tied at 2-2 before the Dutch were able to pull away. Netherlands took a 1-0 lead on a Danny Stempher goal in the last minute of the first period. The next goal was not scored until five minutes into the third period when Mátyás Biró scored to bring Romania level. This was when the fun started. Reno de Hondt put Netherlands back up by one but less than a minute later Romania scored again to make it 2-2 thanks to a Mircea Constantin goal. De Hondt scored his second goal in a span of a minute and a half to put the Dutch up again. They would hold on for the win with Boat van Gestel and Raymond van der Schuit scoring as well and the Netherlands won 5-2.
Szabolcs Závodszky
@Zavodszky