In their first game at the 2014 U-18 World Championships Hungary will be taking on Sweden at 14:30 on the main ice at the Ice Palace.
The two teams are somewhat familiar with each other since the two teams took part in the Four Nations tournament that was held in Budapest earlier in the year. During the 2013 world championships the two teams faced each other in the quarter finals where Sweden won 4-0 and would end up taking the bronze medal whereas Hungary finished at a respectable 6th place. Also adding to the familiarity is that the Swedish team is returning six players from the 2013 team, this is a bit less than the 15 that Hungary brings back but Sweden also has deeper talent pool to draw from and also have a much richer womens ice hockey culture.
The Swedish team is being coached by Henrik Cedergren who also coached the team last year, joining Cedergren for another go around is the same staff they had in Finland in 2013.
When asked to give a bit of a scouting report on the Swedes, Hungarian assistant coach Roger Holéczy emphasized that the team is disciplined and a well coached team that stays in the boundaries of their system. “They are really tactical and they play their system to a tee” Holéczy continued “everybody is in their spot and they play their position, it is very hard to force them to make a mistake that we can take advantage of.”
Forward Kriszti Krivi thought that it might be the physical difference that can be a difference maker in the game. “The Swedes are very aggressive and have a size advantage, skating wise we are about the same, we will have to pay attention to back checking”
After playing an exhibition game on Friday afternoon against Canada, Holéczy and the coaching staff were very satisfied with what they saw from their team “I was really impressed how everyone played and how we stayed with them for 2 periods, I was impressed how we could pick up their game, I think we are a lot closer to the top teams then I have thought”
On the other side Canadian head coach Laura Schuller said that she was also liked what she saw from the Hungarian team, “I was expecting the pressure that Hungary brought and took us some time to play our style of game, I was really happy the way the Hungarians played and the pressure they brought, we will be expecting that from every team in the tournament”
Either way the Hungary-Sweden match should be a good one that either team can win
Szabolcs Závodszky