Exciting months are ahead of us in Hungarian hockey with the ERSTE Liga playoff pairings are set and what to expect with the senior national team as well with the Division 1/A World Championships being played in Budapest.
This year’s ERSTE Liga regular season and middle part of the season had a number of exciting and high level games, said the league vice president.
Richárd Szabados said that it was a great idea to add this middle part of the season since the top playoff seed was not determined until the final game of the season and the final playoff spot came down to the final minute of the season.
The vice president also mentioned that both the league and the Hungarian federation is working on satisfying the needs of the fans. A number of workshops were held for the teams for them to improve their marketing and communications. The long term goal of the league is to make teh games more family friendly.
ERSTE Liga Program
The teams selected who they would face in the first round of the playoffs that start on February 20th.
First round pairings
MAC Budapest-Ferencvárosi TC
DVTK Jegesmedvék-Fehérvári Titánok
UTE-Corona Brasov
National team program
The national team preparation program for the upcoming World Championships has been set as well. This weekend they will be playing in an EIHC tournament in Poland where they will be going up against Italy and Kazakhstan. All three teams will be opponents of Hungary at the Division 1/A World Championships.
Hungary will be facing Austria in a home and home on April 4th and 5th with a game in Slovenia on the 11th. Japan will visit Hungary in April 13th and they will close out the preparation against Ukraine on the 18th.
Jarmo Tolvanen said that the goal of these three games this coming weekend is to work on the game systems. The first goal is to work on the defending and the offensive end of the ice. The staff is also looking at who fits where in the system.