Three goal third period lifts Hungary over Great Britain

The first period was a tense affair, as both teams, as well as the capacity crowd, looked nervous. Great Britain, who defeated Hungary 5:4 at the 2012 Division 1A World Championships in Ljubljana had the better of the first exchange, but an early penalty to Ben Davies put them on the back foot. The Hungarian powerplay looked dangerous, as Istvan Sofron broke in from the right wing and fired wide, before it took a fantastic block at the doorstep by defenceman Mark Thomas to deny Hungary breaking the deadlock. Levente Szuper, playing his first competitive game in over a year was forced to make his first save seven minutes in, snagging a Robert Farmer shot in his glove. The game went back and forth, with neither team excelling, however, with four minutes left in the period Great Britain found the back of the net to silence the crowd. Aggressive forechecking by the Brits forced the turnover, and the puck was worked back to the point, allowing David Phillips to fire the shot through traffic which trickled through Szuper’s five hole and lit the lamp. Hungary were the better team following the goal, penning the Brits back in their zone. A 3 on 2 odd man rush with three minutes to go resulted in a scramble in front of Murphy, with Balint Magosi having two whacks at the puck before Murphy managed to cover.

Hungary upped the tempo in the second period, and the host nation dominated proceedings in the second period. Gergo Nagy scored in the opening minutes, as a 3 on 2 play saw Balazs Ladanyi drop the puck to the slot, where Gergo Nagy fired into the top corner past Stephen Murphy. Hungary piled onto the pressure, with Arpad Mihaly forcing a good save out of Murphy again, but the Belfast Giants netminder could do nothing about Marton Vas’ rebound effort to make it 2:1 to the hosts. Istvan Sofron’s shot from the right wing was kicked out right onto the tape of Vas, who made no mistake into the empty net. However, Hungary began to run into penalty trouble, which gave Britain a way back into the game. Good puck control at the blueline by David Clarke and Jonathan Weaver, set up a surging Robert Dowd, who was hauled down, but managed to knock the puck to the blue paint, where Colin Shields got to it first and backhanded it high. Hungary were able to kill off the penalty that came from Dowd being brought down, and from then on in the rest of the period was all Hungary. Eventually they retook the lead as Ladanyi’s feed from the left wing circle went off of Colin Shields’ skate and past a helpless Murphy. Hungary thought they had made it 4:2 soon after, but Janos Vas’ goal was disallowed for being kicked in. Ashley Tait forced a save out of Levente Szuper at the other end with ninety seconds left in the frame, his first save in a spell of nearly ten minutes.

The third period saw Britain begin to show some of the form that saw them defeat Hungary last year, but all too often this momentum subsided. Ashley Tait went close on a wrap around effort, and Jonathan Weaver fired a slapshot over the bar on an odd man rush. Szuper saved his best play for the final period as well, making a good blocker stop on a Mark Thomas point shot nine minutes into the frame, before making a fantastic save, once again with his blocker, this time on a David Clarke one timer; one of his eighteen saves in his return to national team duty. At 51:52 Hungary got the insurance marker they were looking for, as Andras Horvath’s point shot was deflected by the stick of Robert Lachowicz, right into the path of Ladislav Sikorcin, who then found the top corner to make it 4:2. Late in the game GB were given powerplay opportunities, with Tamas Sille taking a tripping minor, and a clash with two minutes to go giving Britain another man advantage opportunity. However, Hungary’s defence held strong, mostly keeping Britain to the perimeter, and to the delight of the capacity crowd, picking up their first victory of this year’s tournament.

Speaking after the game, Great Britain forward Matthew Myers said: ‘It’s going to be a real tough battle now going forward. We’ve got to regroup, we can take a lot of positives from that game; it was our first game together as a group since we got back together. We’ve just got to look forward to tomorrow’s game against Kazakhstan and prepare for that.’

‘We just need to make a few smarter decisions, I think that’s what cost us, a few turnovers and giving up rushes and it always comes down to penalties, we gave them a couple of powerplays and they scored on them, and that’s what is always haunting us at these tournaments at the moment, and we’ve got to cut them out’.

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