Training camp in preparation for the World Championships start on April 3rd, part of putting the best squad together the national team will be playing three exhibition games, against Austria in Vienna on April 8th and in Budapest at the Tüskecsarnok against Austria and Slovenia on April 10th and 12th respectively.
The plan is for the team to travel to the World Championships in Krakow on April 17th with the puck dropping on the 19th for the first game against Japan. Hungary will face Kazakhstan, Italy, Ukraine and host team Poland as well.
In a bit of a surprise but a nice gesture either way was that coach Rich Chernomaz called Zoltán Hetényi into the squad despite missing all of the season because of illness. From the players that are still missing Balázs Sebők should be in camp on the 9th however Gergő Nagy, János Vas and Márton Vas are all dependent on how their club teams perform.
Opinions
Csaba Kovács Sr. Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation technical Vice President
“This is a very important time for the national team since the team would like to be prepared as the best as they can for the upcoming world championships. The Hockey Gala will be the last time that the home fans will be able to see their team on home ice, and lastly it will be a great opportunity to see the Tüskecsarnok, I personally hope that no tickets will be available for either game against Austria and Slovenia. Hockey in Budapest will have a new home and one that happened to be there for one of the Hungarian Cup qualification games knows that it is an excellent facility. We will be facing excellent opponents during the Hockey Gala in Austria and Slovenia as both of them are A Pool teams.These exhibition games are a great opportunity for the national team coach to see what the guys can do and see what line combinations and tactics work and what needs to be changed, against live competition. He will use these games to set the final roster for the Krakow tournament, at teh actually tournament each game will be a tough battle against a quality opponent.
The U18 World Championships will be in Debrecen, I think that this is a big deal because the field in the at the Division 1/A plays a high level of hockey. We can see that the sport is developing in Hungarian as we have more and more players participating in the sport and therefor there is a need for more teams, because of this there are more players hitting the level of talent that is needed to be in the national team. The goal of the U18 team is to avoid relegation from the 1/A level.
With regards to the girls, from a distance it is clear to see after two games that it is a tight group and it will be a tight race from here on out. We started with two wins and it would be nice if they can continue playing like this, we are very proud of them.
(answer to a question) The expectations on avoiding relegations: Right now we are 19th in the world, and that place should buut us on the medal stand, however we are always expecting more out of us than where we are actually ranked, I expect this team to medal.”
Rich Chernomaz, Hungarian national team head coach
“Our goal is to win every game we play, we are not travelling to Poland to lose. We will need to play as a team, will will have to play hard and physical.
We have tremendous depth among the forwards, goal scoring looks to be the least of our problems. However our goaltending lack international experience, however they played great during the season and thats we we can trust them.
Every player is important, we do not have the same luxury that a club team might have where they can take an extra 3-4 players who can get game time if someone is playing subpar or because of injuries. This is why we need a good team, we are only strong as our weakest link.
(answer to a question) At a world championships when you face a team that you haven't faced in a long time the chance of winning against them is always there. We will have to prepare with a great defensive scheme, we can not lose concentration since every team has outstanding forwards. We are going at it one period at a time, one game at a time.
(answer to a question) After the three exhibition games we plan on taking the best twenty skaters, we do not plan on moving any other forwards to defence.
(answer to a question) We have three question marks, the Vas brothers and Gergő Nagy, Gergő’s team will probably make the playoffs, there is a 95% chance that he will not be with us in Poland. Jankó has a 75% chance that he will be in Krakow and because of this we will keep a roster spot for him because of his skill and knowledge level, there is a chance that he might only be able to join the team once we are in Poland. This is the same situation for Marci as well, we might keep a couple extra guys after the Slovenia game just so we have the number for practice. The three games will be very critical for us.”
Viktor Tokaji, team captain
“We are in the lucky situation that its not picking the final squad out of 22-23 players but from 40 players. Coach will give an adequate amount of time to show what they can show and if they deserve to be on the team. In recent years this might be the hardest tournament, any team has a chance of being promoted or relegated.
The team morale and unity is excellent despite having such a large squad and some players are missing. Our strength might be that we have people that are able to step up and take the place of the missing players.
Austria and Slovenia are two teams that are in the A Pool and have been to the Olympics, it will be a good opportunity to see what we need to work on against strong competition.”
The Hungarian Squad
Goalies (3): BÁLIZS Bence (Miskolci Jegesmedvék) HETÉNYI Zoltán RAJNA Miklós (Fehérvár AV19)
Defensmen (11): KISS Dániel (Újpest) ORBÁN Attila, REITER Attila, SZIRÁNYI Bence, TOKAJI Viktor, VARGA Arnold (Fehérvár AV19), GRÖSCHL Tamás, POZSGAI Tamás, MESTYÁN Tamás (Dab.Docler), GŐZ Balázs (Miskolci Jegesmedvék), VAS Márton (Löwen Frankfurt, DEL2)
Forwards (22): AZARI Zsolt (Dab.Docler), BANHAM Frank, BARTALIS István, BENK András, EREDÉLY Csanád, KOVÁCS Csaba, KÓGER Dániel, MAGOSI Bálint, SÁRPÁTKI Tamás, SARAUER Andrew, SIKORCIN Ladislav, VINCZE Péter, (Fehérvár AV19), HAJÓS Roland, METCALFE Tyler, NAGY Krisztián, TÓTH Adrián (Miskolci Jegesmedvék), BERTA Ákos (Debreceni HK), SEBŐK Balázs (Hokki, FIN2), SOFRON István (Krefeld Pinguine, GER), VAS János (Slavia Praha, CZE) NAGY Gergő (Kalamazoo Wings, ECHL) HÁRI János (MODO, SWE)
Coaching Staff
Head Coach: Rich Chernomaz
Assistant Coaches: Gergely Majoross, Tamás Sille, Diego Scandella
Goalie Coach: Gary Clark
Exhibition game scheduale
Wednesday April 8
18:00 Austria-Hungary (in Vienna)
Friday April 10
19:00 Hungary-Austria (at the Tüskecsarnok)
Sunday April 12
17:00 Hungary Slovenia (at the Tüskecsarnok)
World Championships Schedule
Sunday April 19
13:00 Hungary-Japan
16:30 Ukraine-Kazakhstan
20:00 Poland-Italy
Monday April 20
13:00 Kazakhstan-Hungary
16:30 Italy-Ukraine
20:00 Poland-Italy
Tuesday April 21-Off day
Wednesday April 22
13:00 Kazakhstan-Japan
16:30 Italy-Hungary
20:00 Poland-Ukraine
Thursday April 23
13:00 Japan-Italy
16:30 Ukraine-Hungary
20:00 Kazakhstan-Poland
Friday April 24-Off day
Saturday April 25
13:00 Japan-Ukraine
16:30 Italy-Kazakhstan
20:00 Hungary-Poland