Machine-translated from Hungarian.
We successfully navigated the first stage of the Andersen League play-offs, so we arrived in Jászberény knowing that, should we win, our team would be among the top four and ready to face the next challenges.
The home side came out ‘hungry’ and full of energy in the first period, but we managed to break the back-and-forth play with a goal, Petr Karpov found the net in the 11th minute, but the reply came swiftly, with Egorenkov scoring just over a minute later. No further goals were scored in the period, and the teams went into the break with the score level.
The second period was a similarly evenly-matched contest; we were unable to find our technical form, which ruthlessly capitalises on our opponents’ mistakes, so the first two periods turned out to be more exciting than they should have been. In the decisive phase of the period, penalties dominated rather than goals; in the 37th minute, we managed to convert our power-play opportunity into a goal **Martin Sipák, but mirroring the previous period, the response came within a minute from Fedorin, leaving the outcome to be decided in the final period.
We managed to regroup in the final third and play our own game, and this soon paid off when Márk Nagy found the back of the Jászság net in the 44th minute. Shortly afterwards, Ádám Hetler, the home side’s head coach, called for a time-out, but they were unable to turn the match around; Sipák scored in the 50th minute and Nagy netted his second in the 54th, thereby sealing our place in the next round.
Although we made the match more exciting than necessary, our place in the next round was never in doubt. In the quarter-finals, two pairs (DAB-FTC and Szeged-Worm Angels) are also playing a decisive third match, so we do not yet know who our semi-final opponents will be.
Lehel HC vs UNI GYŐR ETO HC: 2 – 5 (AL79) Goalscorers: **#14 Petr Karpov, #7 Martin Sipák (2), #18 Márk Nagy (2) (UNI GYŐR ETO) #61 Egorenkov, #32 Fedorin (Lehel)