Friday afternoon the Hungarian national team played a hard fought match against a slightly more superior team, Belarus. The Hungarians had two young forwards debut when Balázs Sebők and Tamás Sárpátki stepped on the ice. The veteran keeper Zoltán Hetényi got the start between the pipes for Rich Chernomaz with Peter Sevela being the number two and Miklós Rajna not dressing. Joining Rajna amongst the scratched players were defensemen Krisztián Dósa and Attila Reiter as well as Ferenc Kocsis. 

The first twenty minutes came and went with very little excitement aside from shots on goal as Belarus outshot Hungary by two, 9-7. Belarus killed a two minute penalty when Alexi Yefimenko was called for tripping in the early part of the period, later on Attila Orbán was called for tripping as well with Ádám Hegyi getting two minutes for high sticking but Belarus was not able to capitalize.

The second period was much like the first with Belarus outshooting Hungary again by two but this time it was 7-5. Even though Hungary was on the power play for just about five minutes they were only able to register 5 shots on net, just before the midway point of the game Zsolt Azari was called for interference. After forty minutes of hockey the two teams were deadlocked with both keepers, Hetényi and Vitali Koval pitching shutouts.

The third period finally brought some excitement for the people in attendance as Yevgeni Solomonov scored an unassisted goal two minutes into the third period to put Belarus up 1-0. Belarus killed two penalties before they struck again, Balázs Sebök was serving the two minute penalty as Hungary was caught having too many men on the ice. Andrei Antonov and Geoff Platt set up Ivan Usenko for the power play score and the two goal lead. As time dwindled down in the third period Hungary pulled their keeper for the extra attacker and to try to pull even. As Hungary cycled the puck around Bence Szirány’s shot found the back of the net in the last minute of play with Csaba Kovács and Nikandrosz Galanisz get the assists. The final score: 2-1 to Belarus.

After the game Rich Chernomaz had this to say “They are an A class team with something like 16-17 KHL players, their skill level was a bit ahead of ours, defensively we really battled and competed really hard and we had some good chances. The difference was they scored a power play goal, we didn't execute at all on the power play, but penalty kill was good.” He continued on by praising he his players, especially the goaltender “Zoltán Hetényi played an excellent game, all in all I was very proud of the guys”.

Goal scorer Bence Szirányi said “we were told that the score doesn't really matter long as well play in our system and that was the goal for today.”

It sounds like despite the result everyone is overall happy the outcome.

“I felt great on the ice, it was nice to play more than usual,” said Benjámin Nemes after the game. “I was on the penalty kill, and the faceoffs went great as well, I had a couple of shots on net and I was on the ice when we scored our goal, the only thing that would have been better is a win.”

In the late game the home team took on Italy, and jumped out to a 1-0 lead halfway through the 1st period when Grzegorz Pasiut beat Adam Dennis. In the second Italy pulled even when Vincent Rocco setup Roland Hofer for the PPG to make it 1-1. The teams stayed tied until under three minutes left in the game when Adam Baginski scored the game winner and give the home team the three points.

EIHC-tournament, Gdansk, Day 1:
Hungary-Belarus 1-2 (0-0, 0-0, 1-2)
Goals: 42:02: Solomonov, 50:32: Usenko (Antonov, Platt), 59:23: Szirányi B. (Kovács Cs., Galanisz) 
Poland-Italy 2-1 (1-0, 0-1, 1-0)
Goals: 10:06: Pasiut (Kowalowka), 27:23: R. Hofer (Rocco), 58:42: Baginski (Strzyzowski) 

Schedule for Friday
17.00: Belarus-Italy
20.45: Poland-Hungary

Words: Szabolcs Závodszky @Zavodszky