The second round of the IIHF Continental Cup takes place this weekend at Krakow (Poland) and Miercurea Ciuc (ROM). Here's a preview of the teams that will be competing in Group B at Miercurea Ciuc.
SC Csíkszereda/Sport Club Miercurea Ciuc
The club represents Miercurea Ciuc (Hungarian: Csíkszereda, German: Szeklerburg), a small town in the heart of Romania and has a rich history when it comes to ice hockey. The skating club in the town dates back to 1870. Hockey was first seen at the local cinema. People memorized what they saw at tried replicating it at the skating rink. Eight young men started the team under the name of "Clubul de patinaj - Miercurea Ciuc" (Skating Club - Miercurea Ciuc). One of those people was Lajos Vakar, and the local rink commenorates his name.
That‘s how hockey started at Miercurea Ciuc and it picked up fast in the whole region. SC Miercurea Ciuc developed many players who went on to play for the national team and during communist times though most of them were lured to Dinamo or Steaua Bucarest one way or another. Sport Club's first title came in 1949, and lately it has found its winning ways again after a hiatus that lasted from 1963 until 1997. The team has 11 titles as Romanian champions so far.
Last season's team was lead by its Swedish duo of Patrik Wallenberg and Johan Ramstedt and Szilard Sandor and Levente Elekes. The scoring leaders departed in the off season and the team is now i trying to get first line production from last season's secondary players. One of the reasons the SC Miercurea Ciuc has lost some of its important players is the economic crisis which has put further restraints on how much the team can offer its top players salary-wise. In the Romanian league, the scoring leaders are now Zsuk and Hozu, but most of their points have been produced against teams from the lower end of the table. In the MOL League the team has struggled to find the back of the net.
On the defense line the team has lost an important piece in Anton Poznik, but managed to attract former player, slovakian Jozef Hrubý and latvian Toms Bluks. The teams defensive pairings seem good enough for a nice rotation and not over using one certain pairing. Sprencz-Papp; Ordzovensky-Kósa; Hrubý-Bluks.
In goal its the same Stanislav Kožuch, the same person who lead the team last season to the championship. Not a flashy goalie, but does the basics well and manages to keep his team in games most of the time.
The biggest issue concering Sport Club this season is their scoring power against defensively deep teams. The failure to produce goals has generated discontent even from the team's coach, Ulf Weinstock. They can get the puck in front of the net, but just cannot finish the job. As is usually the case in the Romanian championship, these scoring problems once gone, generate a lot of goals. But SC players are yet to properly get out of this offensive draught.
A conculsion it would be that this team is inferior in scoring power than last season's one and that's what dragged it down so far in the season.
Notable players: Levente Hozó, Levente Zsók, Ervin Moldován, Robert Péter
By Mihai Coman
F.C. Barcelona
Barcelona travels to Miercurea Ciuc for the Continental Cup second round in high spirits after the good performance in Ankara, where the team registered a perfect record over host Polis Akademisi, Bulgaria's Slavia Sofia and Israel champion Herzliya Pituah.
After having regained the Spanish title after 7 years, FC Barcelona has experienced several key changes in the off-season. Captain Ivan Codina has retired, the Swedish forwards Jonas Norberg and Johnny Bjorklund has returned to Sweden and Pablo Munoz has moved tor the arch-rival Puigcerdà in a sensation Summer transfer. The team also has a new coach as the Ukrainian Evgeny Semeriak has been replaced with former CH Jaca director Ramon Baron. In the off-season, CH Jaca made offers to Juan Monoz and Danylo Didkovsky but these key players decided to stay with Barcelona. And this means that a certain backbone of the team has been preserved. In the net, Barcelona has the young Anders Alcaine (18), a rising star who who will probably move to a stronger league in a few years. The defense-line is led by Enrique Zapata, the new captain and the Ukrainian-Spanish Vitaly Koulikov who has a good shot from the blue lone. Barcelona's offense include the speedy forwards Juan Munoz and Jordi Bernet as well as Danylo Didkovsky, another Ukrainian/Spanish player who is the brain and the conductor of the team. Barcelona has furthermore found a replacement for Norberg in the Serb, Aleksandr Kosic (f. Red Star Beograd) who is a very physical center and has a nice scoring touch when combined with Didkovsky.
Another new face is Swedish Mikael Boberg from Mälarhöjden/Bredängs (Swedish 1 Division, 3rd tier), a speedy wing but a little too light to compete at high level. Another forward who impressed at Ankara was Marc Ribas, a technical wing, but Barcelona's strength is all in first dangerous line Munoz-Didkovsky-Kosic, probably good to battle for the title in Spanish league, hardly enough to compete with European rivals.
By Davide Tuniz
HYS The Hague
HYS The Hague hails from the Dutch city of Den Haag, most notable for being the residence of the Dutch Government, as well as the International Court of Justice.
HYS The Hague was founded April 16th 1933, and for the first 50 years of its existence it was one, if not the dominant force of Dutch ice hockey, both nationally and internationally, winning the West Europa Cup in 1939,1949 1950, 1953, 1954 and 1955, winning the International Cup in 1963, and even playing for the Spengler Cup in 1954. During the fifties and sixties, the Dutch National team was mostly made up of HYS-players.
After winning the Dutch Championship for the last time in 1969, the club tumbled into decline, finally disappearing from the Dutch elite level in the mid-eighties. The team returned to the top level around the turn of the century, only to serve as supplier to the top teams of a steady flow of lopsided losses and empty icerinks.
Only when the current General Manager, Rene van der Kooij, took over the position of chairman a few years ago did something start to prosper. The addition of a wealthy real estate broker, a former player himself, as the main sponsor, did the rest. Last season, HYS The Hague won their first championship in forty years, defeating the Tilburg Trappers in a best of five series.
The core of that team has remained intact, although some notable additions have been made.
The biggest signing was of course former NHL- and DEL-star Alexander Selivanov. So far, he's in a league of his own in the Dutch Eredivisie, leading the league in scoring, notching an average of over three points per game. His linemate, native Canadian Mike Lalonde does most of the scoring. Czech Jan Bohac is entering his third season with The Hague, and he is also considered one of the stars of the team. Other notable forwards are the Dutch nationals Jan-Jaap Natte, Matt Korthuis and Marcel Bruinsma. Korthuis and Bruinsma are dual nationals: they grew up and learned to play hockey in Canada, but have a Dutch passport because of their (grand)parents, who migrated to Canada. Third-liners Ronald Wurm (who played most of his junior career in the Czech Republic), Andri Salomonson and Willy Schut are expected to keep the door shut.
On defense, more changes took place over the summer. Another big signing here: Victors Ignatjevs. The Latvian player already made a name for himself in The Netherlands by scoring 1,5 points per game from the blue line. However, the biggest threat from the blue line will not be playing: Carl-Johan Johansson was Ignatjevs team mate last season in Bolzano (Italy), but will not be playing in Miercurea Ciuc due to a knee injury. Opposing goaltenders will be happy to know this, as Johansson has displayed the hardest slapshot seen in the Eredivisie in years. Other notable defenders are captain Josh Mizerek, Brian Mullaly and Don Nichols, who is entering his eleventh season in the Netherlands. Another Dutch international, Jordy van Oorschot, joined HYS over the summer from former powerhouse Amsterdam.
So far, HYS The Hague has pretty much torn up the league. After eleven games, they haven't lost a single point yet. Their biggest strength is their sheer firepower.Their first six forwards have amassed 147 points in just 12 games, and their first four defences aren't far behind with 46 points between them.
This season, only the Nijmegen Devils came close to tying a game with HYS The Hague. They did this mostly by using their own offensive speed in the transition from defence to offence. The HYS-defencemen may be very talented, they certainly aren't the fastest, and they run the risk of giving up breakaways against speedy opponents.
The main reason why this hasn't resulted in any significant damage stands between the pipes. In goal, they have last year's winner of the Göbel-De Bruyn Trophy (i.e. goalie of the year award), Tim Knudsen, who's leading the league with a 1,48 GAA at the moment. Their backup goalie is a young kid from Quebec, Jonathan Jobin, who might see some ice time on the last day.
By Ronald Herrengraven
Ujpest TE
Újpesti TE (common name: Újpest, but never mentioned as Újpest Budapest) is a sports club in the 4th district of the Hungarian capital, Budapest. The 124 years old traditional club was founded by local citizens and still have very strong roots in Újpest, but nowadays commonly considered as the second most popular club in the country after Ferencváros.
Ice-hockey started in the club in the 1930s, but was discontinued after some years. Modern era ice-hockey started in 1955. Since then, Újpest collected 13 Hungarian championship titles, making it the second most successful club behind eternal rival Ferencváros (25 titles). With the fall of the communism the financial basis of the ice-hockey disappeared, a long crisis started which reached its deepest point in the 1999/2000 season, when the club was not able to start a senior team in the championships.
A reorganisation started after that, and in december 2003 finally the indoor icerink opened on the site of the old outdoor rink. On the new rink a new team was built and in 2005, 13 years after the last appearance, Újpest played in the championships final again.
The club achieved the right for the Conti Cup participation for everyone's surprise, with the silver medal in the 2008/2009 season behind EBEL team Alba Volán. The largest part of the job was done by two lines: with five home players in the first line (Hetler-Hüffner, Berta-Borbás-Virág) while the best line of the whole championships was composed of five slovakian players: Rufus-Kadlubiak, Dubek-Sikorcin-Zlocha. Unfortunately, many key players have left the team in the off-season.
The start of this season was overshadowed by serious ice problems (the chilling system of the rink was seriously damaged and the team could not do the trainings on good ice), and late changes in the roster. Because of the ice problems the team played only 8 matches in the championships until now, and they had only 4 preparation games.
MOL Liga and Hungarian championship rules allow 5 foreign skaters and a home goalie or 3 foreign skaters and one foreign goalie on a gamesheet, and team management opted for home goalies. Thus, the two slovakian goalies, Juraj Nemcak and Matus Palko left the team, András Sájevics (returned from Ferencváros) and Zoltán Becze (arrived from Alba Volán) try to replace them, but both of them lack consistence, even during a match.
In the defence, Slovakian Igor Rufus gone and the most charismatic player of the team, Attila Tolnai is also missing from the roster. Márton Bontovics arrived from Ferencváros, but he is not more than a 3rd or 4th line player. As there is a big lack of good defensemen in Hungary, Romanian citizen István Nagy arrived from HC Csíkszereda, Latvian Algairs Berzins, Slovakian Marcel Petran and the latest signing Justin Javorek completes the list. From the three home defenders, Hüffner is by far the best, with excellent offensive play and good shots. Most probably he will play with Nagy. Kadlubiak often makes tricky shots from the blue line, Petran and Javorek are very robust defenders.
Since the defence of the team is not always working fine, Újpest has to be strong on attacks. The combinative play with fast passes amd many improvisations are their most dagerous weapons. Unfortunately, Jan Zlocha is not anymore the brain of the team, he went back to Slovakia. Last year's biggest star, Ladislav Sikorcin and Vladimir Dubek usually plays with young Attila Rafaj in the second attack line. The first line also suffered losses. Two talented youngsters, Berta and Virág left, Gábor Kiss arrived from Ferencváros and ukrainian Vitaly Kyrychenko from Progym. They will play wings with Borbas in the middle. In the third line young Hungarian players may show their talent and try to give some rest for the first two lines
Most notable players: Sikorcin, Borbás, Rafaj, Németh P.
Expected lineups:
Becze/Sájevics (gk)
Hüffner-Nagy
Kadlubiak-Javorek
Berzins-Petran
Hetler-Bontovics
Kiss G.-Borbás-Kyrychenko
Dubek-Sikorcin-Rafaj
Németh P.-Szajbert K.-Roczanov
By Peter Kerei
|
