The Women’s senior team open the Division 1/B world championships in Beijing China on Monday with the goal of improving on last years Bronze Medal.
“The basic expectation is to achieve the best results possible, I personally want the girls to come back with a new medal for their collection at the end of the tournament. We are always concentrating on the next task at hand which is try to win our first game which is against North Korea” said coach Tibor Marton.
The expectations are not necessarily high but getting the gold would not be out of reach and being relegated would be a disappointment. Last years bronze medal was realistic against the field that they faced last year. In 2014 the girls finished with two losses to the two teams that finished ahead of them, the gold medlist Latvians and this years host nation China.
This is a very beatable field, Slovakia, the team that was relegated down to this group is a team that can be beat as Hungary already did in February at the 4 Nations tournament that was held in Budapest. Last year they lost to China 3-1 in a tight game, despite China playing on home ice that is still very much a winnable game for Hungary. The Dutch are a team that is very similar to Hungary, in the standings last year they finished tied on points but Hungary beat them 2-1 in a game where the Hungarian fans were on the edge of their seats until the closing minutes. After this group of teams there seems to be a drop off as North Korea and the newly promoted Italians should not be that much of a challenge for our girls.
Like any national team in any sport the Hungarian team also went through some roster changes. One of these took place at the start of the season and it wasn't on the ice but behind the bench as former head coach Csaba Gömöri had stepped down after years of hard work, also not coming back was Roger Holéczy. Replacing them was Tibor Marton who two seasons ago had been voted youth coach of the season by the Hungarian federation, also new on the stay was Dwayne Gylywoychuk, an assistant on the Canadian women's U18 team, and goalie coach from Slovakia Zuzana Tomcikova.
On the roster there were a couple of changes, last year the team rode the heroics of goaltender Anikó Németh throughout the tournament, this past season she spent a couple of months in Canada where she had the opportunity to improve her game. Last years backup Boglárka Gegesy took the season off, taking her place on the roster is Renáta Poltzer. On the blue line six out of seven defencemen are back but one person that is missing is team captain Gyöngyi Szlaby who right before the world championships decided that it might be time for her to take a step back after nine world championships. Her leaderships will truly be missed in the locker room.
This year there will be eight defenders and joining great defenders such as Dorottya Medgyes and Franciska Kiss-Simon will be to excellent young ladies in Lotti Odnoga and Enikő Tóth. From top to bottom the blue line has some great depth. The forward unit is pretty much the same as the one from last year, making her senior world championships debut will be Zóra Gottlibet. The scorers of all thirteen goals from last year are back and only one assist will be missing that came from Szlaby.
It looks like this squad has everything that a championships team needs, good goaltending depth on the blueline and a scoring touch.
Schedule, stats, standings and all other information about the world championships can be found here.
Roster
Goalies (2): NÉMETH Anikó (KMH) POLTZER Renáta (KMH)
Defensemen (8): KISS-SIMON Franciska (Belije Medvedji) CSISZER Sarolt, MEDGYES Dorottya (Marilyn) NÉMETH Bernadett, ODNOGA Lotti, TÓTH Enikő, TRENCSÉNYI Kitti (KMH) MOLNÁR Mónika (Manhattanville College)
Forwards (12): BRGLES Nóra (SDE Stockholm) JÓKAI SZILÁGYI Zsófia (MSSK Pitea) DABASI Réka, RÓNAI Alexandra, SOMOGYI Vivien, UNGÁR Rebeka (KMH), GOTTLIBET Zóra, HORVÁTH Tifani, KISS Andrea, PINTÉR Hanna, PINTÉR Lili (Marilyn) JÓKAI SZILÁGYI Kinga (Sportország)
Coaching staff
Head coach: Tibor Marton
Assistant coaches: Norbert Buzás, Dwayne Gylywoychuk
Goalie coach: Zuzana Tomcikova