Week 14 Round up
Tamás Bíró opened up the scoring for the visitors when he took a pass skated down to the right face-off dot and sniped a shot over the left shoulder of József Pleszkán for the first goal. Mike Danton scored his first goal in the MOL League to make it 2-0 on the penalty kill.
"Before the game I made a point of watching the goalie and noticed that he is a big guy that goes down quickly," said Danton after the game "so when I got the puck on the breakaway I looked up and saw that I can either get him to go down and shoot high or shoot low, I went for the five hole and luckily it went in."
In the first minute of the second period Szabolcs Szőcs stole the puck from right in front of the UTE goal and flipped in for another shorthanded goal. Roscoe Sweeney put the home team up on the scoreboard as he took the pass from Csaba Virág, did a spin move in front of the goal and slid the puck past Gellért Ruczuj
"It was basicly a tic-tac-toe play where I got in the right place and put the puck in an empty net," said Sweeney about his goal. At 26:10 Tihamér Becze took a feed from behind the net and made it 4-1, Szőcs scored his second one of the period to make it 5-2. UTE was able to score a second goal as the veteran András Horváth came down the left wing and put a wrister into the back of the net.
The third period only registered one score as Vaclav Novák scored another goal from the doorstep of the goal to make it 6-2.
Nové Zámky-FTC 4-3
After a scoreless first period Michal Siska broke the deadlock when he took a pass from Patrik Korytko and put it past Krisztián Budai. Marek Uram doubled the lead before Dusan Sijka put Ferencváros on the scoreboard with Artyom Vaszjunyin getting the assist. Nové Zámky scored two quick goals before the end of the period as newly signed Lubomir Hurtaj and Marek Dubec both lighting the lamp.
In the third period Zoltán Pál found Gábor Kiss with a pass who scored to make it 4-2. Vaszjunyin scored a goal as well but it was too late as the home team kept the three points.
"We have a lot of injured players, and this had an effect on the game. I'm happy that we won," said Ladislav Lubin after the match.
Miskolc-Brasov 2-1 SO
The visitors struck first as Juhamatti Hietamäki found Csanád Virág who was able to put the puck past Dávid Duschek for the early lead.
"I got the puck from Virag on the offensive blue line, took it into the zone, got passed two skaters and made a pass to Virag in front of the net," said Hietamäki about is assist. In the second period Vladimir Dubek scored an even strength goal to make it 1-1 at 7:57 into the third period. The two goalies went shot for shot as neither Duschek or Patrik Polc let in a goal the rest of the game, after three periods and five minutes of overtime the teams were locked at 1-1
In the shootout Juraj Ducro had the winning shot. Miskolc coach Bob Dever said this about the game "I didn't like the way we started, we didn't play that strong in the first period. As the game progressed we got stronger and Duschek had a great game."
Nové Zámky-Miskolc 2-5
Miskolc traveled north to take on the league leaders Nové Zámky before they would start preparation for the winter classic.
Dezső Roczanov scored 4:25 into the first period with Ádám Hegyi doubling the lead for the visitors. In the second period Nové Zámky cut the lead to one goal as Martin Frolik put the puck past Dávid Duschek. Later in the second period Erik Weissmann setup Marek Dubec for a goal to tie the game up at 2-2.
Nové Zámky could not take advantage of the momentum they had going as Miskolc scored three unanswered goals in the third, Roczanov scored his second of the game to get Miskolc back on top with Juraj Faith making it a two goal lead. For good measure Matt Boyle set up Roland Hajós for the short hander.
DAB-UTE 4-2
Adrián Hüffner opened up the scoring for the home team on the power play, UTE tied the game up late in the first period as Lőrinc Farkas scored an unassisted goal.
In a four minute span in the middle of the second period DAB.Docler scored three goals to take command of the game. Balázs Somogyi gave the lead back to the home team with Attila Pavuk making it a two goal lead. Dávid Szappanos put the game out of reach for Újpest with the third goal of the second period.
UTE scored a late goal in the game from the stick of Roscoe Sweeney, "I was able to pick up a loose puck in the neutral zone with speed and beat the defenseman, Last second I pulled the puck across the crease to tucked it in with my backhand," said Sweeney about his goal.
"We were concentrating for the first 10 minutes of the game," said DAB.Docler coach Stephan Lundh "after that we were playing a lot more loose, maybe the guys were already looking towards the winter classic game against Miskolc."
DAB-Miskolc 2-1 OT
Miskolc visited DAB.Docler however the game was not held in Dunaújváros but in Budapest in City Park in the Winter Classic, both teams played in jerseys that were designed specifically for this game.
The game turned out to be a battle of the goalies as Dávid Duschek of Miskolc and Janis Kalnins of DAB.Docler went save for save. Balázs Ladányi scored first as Balázs Somogyi fed him a pass from behind the net to make it 1-0. In the second period Jordan Knox took a pass and skated down the right wing from where he shot out the top right corner of the goal.
"I took a pass from Fliszár, skated down the wing, found an opening and luckily it went in, it was a nice view of the goal with the castle in the back," said Knox with a smile. The two goalies shut out the other team for the rest of the game, 2:42 in overtime Somogyi stuffed a rebound past Duschek for the winning goal in a great game in the Winter Classic.
"The most important thing was to we win the game, we were the better team in the first period and they were better in the second," said DAB.Docler coach Stephan Lundh "At the end we ended up winning and I'm happy that we took the two points".
Miskolc coach Bob Dever said "I would like to thank our fans for making the trip. Our goalie played outstanding, we were great in the second period and OK in the third, took away one point which was what we deserved".
Csíkszereda-Brasov 2-3
As the race for the four playoff spots stays very close Brasov travelled to Csíkszereda with their new coach Kari Rauhanen to grab three points.
Halfway through the first period Szabolcs Szőcs put the home team up 1-0, in the second period Martin Saluga set up Zsolt Mastaleriu for the goal to tie things up at one. The two teams exchanged goals in the remaining part of the period as Tihamér Becze scored first for the home team and Csanád Virág pulled Brasov back even again for the second time in the game. 4:32 into the third period Virág added an assist to his goal as he helped Juhamatti Hietamäki score the winning goal.
"I skated from the blueline to the top of the circle, Virág gave a pass and I just tried to take a quick shot, which ended up not being a good one but it some how went in," said Hietamäki of his winning goal. Kari Rauhanen had this to say of his first match with Brasov "It was a hard fought match. The team that wanted it more ended up winning," he continued on saying "we played as a team and we played for each other. This was an important win."
FTC-UTE 5-2
The two Budapest rivals met up as Fradi hoped to get three points to stay with the lead pack in the hunt for a playoff spot.
Újpest struck first as on a power play as Lőrinc Farkas put the puck past Michal Meravy. Jere Ölander set up Gábor Kiss 61 seconds into the second period to make it 1-1, FTC scored two more goals before the midway point of the game as Norbert Dancsfalvi scored an unassisted goal and Dusán Sijka had the second one to make it 3-1. At 31:45 of the game UTE scored their second power play goal, this time Erik Maklári lit the lamp with Bence Zalavári getting the assist.
In the third period Artyom Vaszjunyin got Fradi back to a two goal lead, later in the period UTE rolled the dice and pulled their keeper when they were on the power play to have a two man advantage, however Zoltán Pál ended up finding the empty net and ending Újpest's hopes of sending the game into overtime.
"We were mentally better prepared," said FTC coach Tamás Dobos. "Újpest was a tough opponent, they will end up stealing points from teams later on in the season."
League Leaders
Points: 41, Balázs Ladányi
Goals: 19, Antti Ojanen
Assists: 27, Balázs Ladányi
Szabolcs Závodszky
@Zavodszky