On the second day of match competition Hungary will be taking on Ukraine, who last year won promotion to the group. On the first day of the tournament they took Austria to overtime before coming up short.
“They have a big team that is very strong, the game will be big challenge, they will be motivated after an overtime loss. most of us picked Ukraine over austria. despite being the team that moved up they are a very strong team. we will have to come out and get a good start,” said Hungary goalie coach Gary Clark.
Hungary had faced Ukraine in November in Budapest which they won 1-0, both Tyler Metcalfe and Benjámin Nemes were in that team.
“Ukraine has a very strong team and it will be a more difficult match than it was against Korea,” said Metcalfe. “I am excited about the Hungarian team that has been put together this year. The youth and energy will hopefully be an asset in the coming matches. We have some serious firepower up front with our forwards so if tight games come up that will surely help. Ukraine was a fairly close checking game in November when we saw them so scoring on opportunities and power plays will play a key role.”
“They have a number of KHL players which shows how strong they are, in November they defended very well and did not give the opponents any opportunities,” said Nemes.
Coaching the Ukraine team is Andrei Nazarov who has established himself as a coach in the KHL after having played in the NHL for twelve seasons.
Goalie position might be the weakness of the team as they have Vadim Seliverstov and Sergei Gaiduchenko. Seliverstov is not new to international competition but has always been the backup goalie and looks to be the number two this time around as well, he has never really played in an elite league during his career. Gaiduchenko was drafted by the Florida Panthers in 2007 but has yet to go overseas, he has played in the KHL for six seasons but always as a back up and this is his first world championships.
The defencemen have a similar resume to the two goalies, they are mostly made up of veteran players who have played in the world championships but not in any of the bigger leagues. This being said they are still a hard nosed group that is lead by a pair of 34 year olds in Denis Isayenko and Yuri Navarenko. One player to keep an eye on is a 19 year old Danil Skripets who spent this past season in the MHL and looks to have a bright future ahead of himself.
The forward unit is a nice mix of both young and old, with a number of players coming from the KHL. Most of the offence will be coming from Olexander Materukhin, but there are two young guys that have a real chance of making a name at this tournament, Pavlo Padakin who is 19 and will be playing in his first senior world championships and Viktor Zakharov who is 20.
With Rich Chernomaz and Hungary going with more a physical lineup Ukraine will be able to counter with two veterans who have played in North America and have the size as well. Sergei Varlomov played four seasons in the NHL and Andrei Mikohonov who played juniors in the Canada and stands at over two meters tall.
Photo: László Mudra