U20: Hungary Battles hard against Latvia in opener

Latvia-Hungary 4-1

For the opening game of the DIvision 1/A World Championships against Latvia, Head coach Jarmo Tolvanen gave Balázs Tóth the start in net with Máté Garbacz serving as the backup goalie.

In the opening minutes of the game Latvia kept pressure on the Hungarian net. Hungary also had their chances Antonino Sarcia sent a flouter on net from the blueline, later in a scramble in front of the Latvian net Hungary hit the post. On their first power play opportunity Hungary managed to bring the puck into the attacking zone on their second one Latvia snuffed the power play out as Hungary started the game 0 for 2 with the man advantage. Balázs Tóth made two big saves around the middle part of the period. In the second half of the period Hungary had two short handed situations that they were able to kill to close out the first period all tied up at 0-0.

In the first minute of play in the second period Renars Krastenbergs put the puck past Tóth to give Latvia the first lead of the game. Latvia kept the pressure on the Hungarian net, this paid off as they went up 2-0 when Emils Gegeris took a shot from the left faceoff circle hit the post and went in. After the second Latvian goal the game became more balanced however Latvia was still dangerous.

For the third period Jarmo Tolvanen juggled the lines to get some spark into the offense. Ákos Szigeti had an early chance in the period that hit the goalie in the chest. Hungary had chances on the power play as Bálint Horváth had a shot from the slot with Ákos Mihály followed it up with a chance as well. Just before the midway point of the game Zsolt Szalma scored off of a pass from Brúnó Kreisz to make it a 1 goal game. Soon after Latvia went back up by two goals on a breakaway by Daniels Berzins. Later in the period Latvia went up 4-1 off of a deflected shot on the power play. In the closing minutes Andor Péter had a breakaway that was stuffed by the goalie.

Jarmo Tolvanen, Head coach: The team looked a bit nervous, but I think we had a string start even if we could not score we created chances and played a good first period. In the second they scored two goals to get the momentum and it took too long for us to get it back. They were the better team for 15 minutes in the second period, and that was the difference today. In the third we put pressure on them and scored a goal. They scored two easy ones and then they got energy. They played in the A-Pool last year and we were in the 1/B last year, I told the boys there is no reason to be shamed. It was a good team effort.

Bence Szabó, defenceman: I think the game went well considering we have not played at this level. I am very proud of the guys of the way they played. We were a bit tired in the the second period and they scored two quick goals. We scored once in the third, overall I think we played very well and we had a lot of positives.

Zsolt Szalma, forward: We played a hard fought game against Latvia, in the second period they scored a lucky goal and then a second one but we pressed and played our game. In the third period we played better and scored a goal off of a faceoff. We had a chance to tie it up but just missed out on it. They scored twice late, one off of the powerplay but I think we played well.

Lineup against Latvia
Szalma, Horváth Szita
Vértes, Péter, Mihály
G.Tóth, Kreisz, Majoross
Molnár, Révész, Szigeti
Papp

Szabó, Fejes
Kiss, Sándor
Pokornyi, Sarcia
Vas

B.Tóth (Garbacz)

Roster

 Staff