Hari and Vas both score two as Hungary dominates Lithuania in Group G play
09 Nov 2012 | Tim Bourcier
Budapest, Hungary
Lithuania never got anything moving as the home crowd motivated Hungary to a 5-1 victory. Benk scored early and Hungary scored three times with the man advantage to put away the visitors. Sofron won man-of-the-match with two assists.
Hungary came out strong and scored in just under three minutes on Benk's wraparound and the good fortune continued from there. After killing off a 5-on-3, Hungary took the momentum . Vas took a feed from Sofron to make it 2-0 in the first on their power play opportunity.
On another power play to start the second period, Hari scored with a wraparound of his own to make it 3-0. Lithuania showed some life on their power play after a Kuliesius goal. It would be short-lived; this would be the visitors' only goal of the game. The Hungarian squad put the game away with another goal by Hari and another by Vas, within four minutes of the second period to take the lead 5-1.
There was no scoring in the third and the Hungarian crowd of nearly 6,000 sent their side off with a standing ovation.
Lithuania and Croatia, both draw the dominant sides on Saturday. Croatia will face Hungary at 17:30 and Lithuania will play the Netherlands at 14:00. The losing sides will both have to beat the very dominant teams from today to have a chance to make it to the next round. Neither Lithuania nor Croatia looked ready to play at an elite international level and will need some serious adjustments if either team has a chance at the next round.
Tim Bourcier will be live tweeting this weekend's Group G Olympic qualifiers from Papp Laszlo Arena in Budapest. Follow him on Twitter @bourciertm and follow his blog bourciertm.wordpress.com.