Playoff picture starts to get clear

31 Jan 2014 | Szabolcs Závodszky

With Monday’s 8-3 home win against Újpest, Dunaújváros’ DAB.Docler is the regular season winner and therefore the top ranked team in the playoffs. The rest of the playoff picture still looks wide open with everyone having a chance to win entrance to the playoffs except for last placed Újpest who is 53 points behind the sixth place Ferencváros. Let’s see how the mid-table teams stand up from down.

Ferencváros (currently 6th place, 59 points)

Mathematically they still have a chance of grabbing the fourth and final playoff spot, but that to happen they would need to pretty much win out with both Brasov and Csíkszereda finishing with less than 78 points. In the mean time the club has broken their ties to the tall Finish blue liner Jere Ölander, officially for disciplinary reasons.

Csíkszereda (5th place, 70 points)

Is in a very tight race and currently on the outside looking in. Like the rest of the field they can finish anywhere between 2nd and 5th place, but have the advantage of playing their next four games at home before playing the last two one the road, at FTC who could be eliminated by then and the already regular season winner DAB.

Csíkszereda has made two transfers recently, ex-NHL forward Mike Danton has moved on to Poland but they have brought in the Slovak forward Martin Kulha who scored in his first game in the MOL League on Monday night.

Brasov (4th place, 70 points)

The other team from Transylvania is in very similar situation as Csíkszereda except that they have played one less game than the rest of the league, therefore have one more chance to pick up three points. Unfortunately the two rivals have already played their last match between themselves which was a 4-3 win for Brasov on the road.

With regards to the roster the team has had some changes recently. Johan Ceder was with the team for only a couple of weeks and Josh Bonar has left the team as well after missing a number a games with an injury. In the meantime Brasov brought back Csanád Fodor from FTC who was having a pretty good season with the Budapest club and has been on fire since he moved back home.

Nové Zámky (3rd place, 73 points)

For a large part of the season Nové Zámky stood at the top of the table but was never really able to pull away from the pack. Right now they have a three point lead on the 4th and 5th place teams but that is not really a safe gap, at least not yet. One thing that Nové Zámky does have is depth, for example they have had four different goalies play between the pipes and 32 skaters dress. The rest of the schedule for Nové Zámky has them playing UTE twice but the other four games are against teams who are also in the fight for the playoffs. Whereas the other teams have brought in players the Slovakian side has coach Robert Spisak back in control of the team after Ladislav Lubina has stepped down.

Miskolc (2nd place, 75 points)

Miskolc has probably been the most consistent team during since October, they have had the same roster with not really adding any one until recently when they signed Tomo Hafner a Slovenian forward who this season has played in Kazakhstan and Spain as well. Hafner will be the sixth foreing-born player on Miskolc’s roster after young Canadian defenceman, Curtis de Bruyn, Matt Boyle who have 15 and 16 points respectively in 43 games, veteran Slovak duo Juraj Durco and Juraj Faith (49 points), and Jordan Knox (45 points) in addition to Canadian-Hungarian team captain Tyler Metcalfe (51 points).
Three times out of their last five games Miskolc will be playing in Transylvania with the other two games being against Ferencváros. If they take care of business this weekend then Miskolc can book a ticket to the playoffs.