Super Cup Stays in Fehérvár

Sapa Fehérvár AV19 won the Hungarian Super Cup after winning both games of the two-legged final against Dab.Docler.

After a thrilling 3-2 win for the road team Fehérvár over Dunaújváros in the first leg of the 2014 Super Cup the teams traveled west across Fehér County for the second leg. As expected with the import restriction Fehérvár coach Marty Raymond dressed leading scorer Frank Banham and top defenseman Ric Jackman who sat out Tuesday's matchup. Missing Wednesday’s game was Bryan McGregor who scored a goal in the first one and defender Andy Sertich. On the DAB.Docler side there was one change but it was a major one, after starting the first game between the pipes Peter Sevela was scratched and getting the start in his place was Janis Kalnins with Tamás Kiss staying as the number two.

“I just wanted to rest Sevela after he had just played with the national team,”said DAB’s head coach Stephan Lundh.One other note regarding the lineup is that Benjámin Nemes who took a shot off his ear on Tuesday is fine aside for some stitches from having the plastic ear plate shatter and cut his ear.

The first period started surprisingly slow with the only action being a shot from Nemes that Kalnins gloved. Arnold Varga was called for interference but DAB could not capitalize on the advantage. Halfway through the period Balázs Ladányi picked up a pass from Ákos Kiss and then placed it nicely in front of Dávid Szappanos who put the puck over Zoltán Hetényi’s blocker to give the visitors the early lead.

Later on in the period with Fehérvár on the two man advantage Colton Yellow Horn played the pass from Andrew Sarauer and passed it from down low on the left to Banham who took a slapshot from high in the slot that beat Kalnins for the equalizer. Fifty eight seconds later Árpád Mihály took an outlet pass from Bence Szirányi and skated into the attacking zone and through the left faceoff circle and snapped a shot past the goalie to give the home team the first lead of the game. Hetényi was credited with the other assist.

“I kind of picked up the puck and the space opened up in front of me and I just skated in and kind of caught the keeper by surprise,”said Árpád Mihály.On the play Kalnins appeared to pick up a muscle injury of some sort. DAB was forced to switch goalies with Tamás Kiss taking the place in the cage. It didn’t take long for Alba Volán to take advantage of the cold keeper as András Benk scored at 18:07 of the period. Benk took a pass from Nemes in the slot and placed in five hole through the pads of Kiss to give his team a two goal lead.

In the early part of the second period it looked like Kiss had shaken the rust off as he was spinning on his head making saves and keeping his team in it. At 32:09 of the game Fehérvár expanded on their lead to make it 4-1, Banham played a puck to Sarauer’s stick and then peeled off and posted up in front of the DAB goal. Sarauer skated through the slot from right to left and whipped a shot past the unsuspecting Kiss to make it 4-1. Imre Peterdi was called later for hooking and Balázs Somogyi for delaying the game but Fehérvár was unable to score as Dunaújváros killed both of the penalties.

The third was rather uneventful up until just over 10 minutes left in the period when Andy Contois threw the puck forward and Richárd Nagy picked it up which turned into a 2 on 1 as Attila Pavuk joined as the trailer, Nagy dumped it to Pavuk who one timed the shot past Hetényi to make it 4-2. The score would stand for the last ten minute of the game and would keep the Super Cup in Fehérvár.

On the downside captain Viktor Tokaji broke the little finger on his left and needs surgery, Adam Naglich hurt his shoulder and Yellow Horn got some injuries, too, so this was a costly victory for Fehérvár.

MME Super Cup, 1st leg

Dab.Docler-Sapa Fehérvár AV19 2-3 (0-3, 2-0, 0-0) 

MME Super Cup, 2nd leg

Sapa Fehérvár AV19-Dab.Docler 4-2 (3-1, 1-0, 0-1)

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