Late decision in the HunGer games

With the Canadian victory over France the German team had already secured its spot in the quarterfinals and had nothing to loose against Hungary today. For Hungary the situation was a lot different. Despite holding the edge over Belarus at the moment, they needed to win to make sure they would stay in the top division next year as well. If they should not get all three points they would need to hope Belarus does not outscore them tomorrow against France.

The Hungarian hopes got fed after 9 minutes when Istvan Bartalis skated into the German zone, seemed to loose the puck, but Istvan Sofron was the quickest to react, picked it up and skated around Thomas Greiss to bring Hungary ahead. With their quick breaks Hungary kept being the more dangerous team in the first period and carried the well deserved 1-0 lead into the locker room.

Balasz Sebok and Yannic Seidenberg. Photo: Ing. Vladimír Koláček

In the second period the German team came out with much more power and put Hungary under pressure.With 31:42 minutes off the clock it was Patrick Hager, who intercepted a Hungarian pass on the powerplay and tried to pass it over to Gogulla, but instead hit defender Jesse Dudas' leg from where the puck slipped over the line for the equalizer.

Same picture in the last period. Germany was now showing why they currently sit in third place. Just 82 seconds into the period a puck bounced out of a scramble in front of the goal right on the stick of Dennis Reul, who found the gap in between all the players to mark the 2-1 for Germany.

Four minutes later the Hungarians came to a surprising equalizer. Balint Magosi found Kevin Wehrs at the blue line and his shot went all the way through into the net. At this point Germany was holding a 27-12 shot advantage.

Germany created more and more scoring chances, but Miklos Rajna held his team in the game with numerous good saves. Germany experienced first hand how dangerous it can be to dominate a game but not use your chances from the last game against the USA, when they were the ones to score the lucky punch in the last minute.

What's going on behind the net? Photo: Ing. Vladimír Koláček

But today they found a way to prevent an upset from happening.Two and a half minutes away from the final sirene Sinan Akdag found his fellow defender Constantin Braun in what looked like a powerplay and he shot it right into the net to reestablish a lead for Germany with 3-2. Yannic Seidenberg could add an empty netter for the final score of 4-2.

Germany will finish the group stage in 3^rd place for sure now and has to wait for its opponent, which should be Russia or the Czech Republic. For Hungary the tournament ended today, but they don't know yet, what their historic win against Belarus will be worth. That will be known tomorrow after the game France vs Belarus. If Belarus gets at least a point Hungary will still go back down into Division 1A.

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