After taking care of business in the first game of the of the U20 World Championships against Lithuania, the Hungarian national team took on the neighbors to the east, Romania. Since a number of clubs from the Transylvanian part of Romania participate in the Hungarian league in a number of age groups these two teams were actually very familiar with each other.
Hungary scored in the first minute of play as Ferenc Kocsis set up Csanád Erdély. Romania countered 22 seconds later with Arnold Silló lighting the lamp for Romania to make it 1-1, Dennis Dumitru and Zoltán Molnár got the assists.
In first minute of the second period Hungary took the lead again, Erdély got his stick on a bouncing puck and took a shot from the slot that went in, Péter Vincze and Krisztián Dósa assisted on the goal. Five minutes later a Vilmos Galló goal made it a two goal lead as Áron Könczei and László Ritó got the assists. The Hungarian scoring machine kept on going, Romania's Detre Hodos got sent to the penalty box for delaying the game, on the power play Tamás Láday took a pass from Attila Reiter and fired it on night from just inside the blue line, inline with the net, Zoltán-László Tőke made the first save but he couldn't control the rebound which Erdély put into the empty net for the hat trick. Péter Vincze said after the game "we managed to take the lead and then expand on it because we stuck to what the coaching staff had asked of us."
In the early part of the third period Láday got the puck to Erdély who passed it onto Vincze on the right hash marks in the slot who fired the shot passed Tőke to make it 5-1. In the last ten minutes of the game things started to get chippy between the two teams, on a power play Galló put a shot on net that was saved but the rebound was not cleared out, Krisztián Nagy pounced on it and put it past the keeper.
"Very emotional for both sides as games against Romania are regardless of the sport, I think that as the game went on we took control of it, they couldn't keep the same tempo that we applied because of that they started to make mistakes that we could capitalize on in the second period," said coach Rich Chernomaz after the game. "In the third period even though they were out of the game they still tried to play physical. They guys did a great job stick up for each other and played as a team."
The first match of the day was Lithuania taking on Estonia. Estonia took a 2-0 lead into the changing room after the first twenty minutes, finding the back of the net was Maksim Pozakov and Ragnar-Hindrek Russ, both goals were even strength goals. In the second period Lithuania turned up the heat as team captain Mauras Baltrukonis put his team on the scoreboard. A shorthanded Daniel Bogdziul goal tied the match at 2-2 and Aimas Fiscevas score towards the end of the period completed the turnaround. Lithuania continued the barrage on the Estonian goal as Paulius Gintautas made it for two and Fiscevas scored his second of the night on the empty net to set the final score at 5-2.
The third match of the day was Netherlands against Croatia, the Dutch scored first 10:37 into the first period on a Guus van Nes power play goal. Croatia fought back to tie it at 1-1 when Martin Plesko scored late in the period but Kilian van Grop put the puck in the Croatian net in the last minute to give the Dutch the lead during the first intermission. In the second period the teams scored two goals apiece, Jordy Verkiel made it 3-1 but less than a minute later Robert Cerovecki took advantage of the power play and brought Croatia back with in one. Holland had a two man advantage and at 30:58 into the game Reno de Hondt put his team back up by two but the Dutch just could not shake the opponents. Roman Skrapec scored a power play goal to make it 4-3 after two periods. The third period was all Holland as de Hondt scored his second of the game and Raymond van der Schuit set the final score at 6-3.
Leading scorers
Points: 6, Csanád Erdély and Danny Stempher
Goals: 4, Csanád Erdély
Assists: 5, Danny Stempher
Standings
Hungary 6 points
Netherlands 6 points
Lithuania 3 points
Romania 3 points
Croatia 0 points
Estonia 0 points
Szabolcs Závodszky
@Zavodszky
Photo: Ákos Ritó