The newly renamed ERSTE LIga has finally started their season after the summer break. The opening match week had a total of 8 games. All three Budapest teams and DVTK survived teh opening week without a loss.
It has only been two matches at most however Ferencváros, DVTK, MAC, and UTE are all tied with 6 points, the rest of the league is at 0.
The legendary club Ferencváros started the season off against the EBEL farm clubs and deposited them with ease. In the season opener they defeated Fehérvár 8-1, the offensive attack was lead by the defenseman Juha Hietamaki who had one goal and three assists in the game. Fradi then shoutout the Vienna Capitals 6-0, as Peter Sevela pulled the game off with zero goals allowed. Hietamaki finished the game with 2 goals and 1 assist, Attila Németh also had 3 points (1+2).
Defending champions DVTK Jegesmedvék started the season off with a road trip to Transylvania as they took on Brasov and Csíkszereda. DVTK defeated Brasov 3-0 in the opening game of the season as Attila Adorján picked up his first shutout of the season, with Attila Pavuk, Rasmus Kulmala and János Vas each scoring once, this win was a real team effort. DVTK traveled up the road to Csíkszereda where they took on Sport Club. The home team jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first period on goals by Zsombor Antal and Andrey Taratukhin. However in the second period DVTK scored two of their own when Nikandrosz Galanisz and Pete Sakaris found the back of the net. The two goals per period average continued in the third as Sakaris scored his second of the game and Balázs Gőz scored as well to win 4-2.
Last season’s runner up team, MAC Budapest opened the season with two road games in Fejér County, the season opener was against Dunaújváros. MAC took the game 5-3, at one point they had a 4-1 lead on goals by Wes Cunningham, István Terbócs, Zsombor Garát and Jared Brown. Dunaújváros closed it to a one goal game at 4-3 as Péter Hetényi, Mátyás Odnoga and Dominik Novotny scored for the home team. Krisztián Nagy ended up scoring an empty net goal. In the second game of the week MAC visited their rivals, Fehérvár. MAC jumped out to a 2-0 after the first period, but Fehérvár tied it up 2-2 after the second period. The first Fehérvár goal was scored from the corner when Derek Schoenmakers threw the puck on net and it somehow squeezed past Gergely Arany for the goal. Brance Orbán scored against his former team to give MAC a open goal lead as they held on to a 4-2 win.
UTE started the season on the road in Vienna, the UTE bus broke down on the way to Vienna, thus the start of the game was delayed. Vienna struck first as Dominic Thalhammer scored the historic first Vienna Capitals goal in ERSTE Liga history. An András Benk power play goal tied the game up at 1-1. The game stayed tied throughout the second and into the third periods, Anze Ropret broke the tie with Benk scoring his second power play goal of the game to give UTE the 3-1 lead. Újpest kept pace with the other league leaders with their Monday night defeat of Dunaújváros in a televised game. The visitors jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first period however the rest of the game belonged to the home team as the UTE defencemen stepped up and carried the attack, goals by Dániel Kiss and Arnold Varga gave UTE the lead with Ádám Pichler making it 3-1.
League Leaders
Points: 7, Juha Hietamaki, FTC
Goals: 3 Hietamaki, Vladimir Dubek, FTC
Assists: 4 Hietamaki, FTC
Standings
FTC 6 points
DVTK 6 points
MAC 6 points
UTE 6 points
Csíkszereda 0 points
Brasov 0 points
Dunaújváros 0 points
Vienna 0 points
Fehérvár 0 points