The Hungarian Women's senior team opened up camp for the upcoming Division 1/B World Championships that will be held in Beijing China from April 6th through the 12th.
The squad will be facing the national teams of Italy, the Netherlands, North Korea and host country China. These teams will not all be strangers for the Hungarians since they finished with the bronze medal in this group last season. Slovakia was the team that was relegated down into the group last season, but in 4 Nations tournament in Budapest in February Hungary was able to beat their neighbors to the north.
There has been some changes to the coaching staff since the last world championships, Csaba Gömöri had decided to step down in the off season and Tibor Marton came in as his replacement. Also there will be two foreign coaches on the staff, Dwayne Gylywoychuk from Canada was added to the staff and the Slovak Zuzana Tomcikova is the goalie coach.
For the second year in a row Fanni Gasparics and Alexandra Huszák have turned down the invite to the national team. Team captain Gyöngyi Szlaby has decided to retire from the national team after being a part of the team for most of the past decade. Vanda Pál’s season ended earlier because of an injury and will not be able to play either.
The goalie position looks to be set with Anikó Németh back as the number one goalie, Renáta Poltzer is the other goalie on the roster. The rest of the field is pretty much open, when asked how the roster will break down regarding defenders and forwards Tibor Marton said that they are taking the best 20 skaters regardless of their positions. Right now there are eight defenders and fifteen forwards in camp, which means that three will not be making the trip to China.
Tibor Marton- “One of our strengths is the discipline that is on the team, everyone plays with purpose and with one goal in mind. It is important that we play a structured defensive game, once we have the puck it is critical to have a strong and fast counter attack. The better we defend the stronger offense we will have.”
Squad
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, TRENCSÉNI Kitti (KMH) MOLNÁR Mónika (Manhattanville College)
Forwards (15): BRGLES Nóra (SDE Stockholm) JÓKAI SZILÁGYI Zsófia (MSSK Pitea) DABASI Réka, RÓNAI Alexandra, SOMOGYI Vivien, UNGÁR Rebeka (KMH) DETTRICH Szilvia, GRKOVIC Jelena, GOTTLIBET Zóra, HORVÁTH Tifani, KISS Andrea, PINTÉR Hanna, PINTÉR Lili (Marilyn) JÓKAI SZILÁGYI Kinga (Sportország) KRIVI Krisztina (ZHK Poprad)
Coaching staff
Head coach: Tibor Marton
Assistant coaches: Norbert Buzás, Dwayne Gylywoychuk
Goalie coaches: Zuzana Tomcikova