MOL Liga Roundup - 10 weeks remaining in season

22 Dec 2012 | Tim Bourcier

Ten weeks remaining in the MOL Liga season and second through fifth place are all up for grabs. Only the top four teams make the playoffs, bringing a lot of excitement down the home stretch. Here are the current league standings.

Current Table (for full standing click here for the EuroHockey MOL Liga webpage):

Team Points Games Back Games Out of Playoffs

DAB Docler 77 --- ---

HC Novy Zamky 53 8 ---

Miskolc Jegesmedvek 51 9 ---

HSC Csikszereda 49 10 ---

ASC Corona Brasov 44 12 2

Ferencvaros TC 25 18 7

Ujpest TE 16 21 11

*about 18 games left in the season for each team.

DAB Docler continues its domination after a little slip up at the beginning of November. Though mathematically any team could be in or out of the playoffs, the Acelbikak are far ahead in first place. Dominant play continues from DAB’s top line of Szappanos (25G-19A-44P), Galanisz (14G-30A-44P) and Pavuk (13G-29A-42P).

The big surprise over the past few weeks has been the resurgence of ASC Corona Brasov. Much of the credit can be given to the play of Joshua Bonar who has scored 34 points (18G-16A) through 22 games – that is a point and a half per game! Brasov now sits two games out of the last playoff spot.

Miskolc Jegesmedvek have continued to struggle in December and lost a good cushion in second place They now sit only one game ahead of the fourth place HSC Csikszereda squad, meaning they are barely holding on to one of the final playoff spots. While Gergo Nagy has helped keep Miskolc in some games recently, Martin Saluga’s absence from the scoring sheet has hurt the Polar Bears over the past month. They will need more from both of their forwards to stay in the playoffs.

The other three teams in the MOL Liga have been fairly quiet as of late. HC Novy Zamky has slipped into second place as Miskolc and Csikszereda have fell off from their early season surge. The two Budapest sides could still make the playoffs, but both teams would need a lot of help. Ferencvaros and Ujpest have both had disappointing seasons and should be looking at strategies for improving for a run next year.

Game of the Week

28 December: HC Novy Zamky – Miskolc Jegesmedvek

The second and third place teams will battle it out in Slovakia. The winner could make a move into second place where they would gain home ice advantage for the playoffs if either team can hold on the second spot over the next ten weeks. This game has the potential to be set the tone for the remainder of the season and a potential playoff matchup.

The following games will be televised on DIGI Sport:

ASC Corona Brasov – DAB Docler: 28 December (19:00 GMT+2)

HSC Csikszereda – DAB Docler: 30 December (18:30 GMT+2)

For full MOL Liga updates, including box scores and game stats, check out the league page on EuroHockey.com.

Tim Bourcier is a writer for EuroHockey.com following the MOL Liga and hockey in Hungary. Follow him on Twitter @bourciertm and read his blog Sport Exec in Training.

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