Košice are the winners of the University of Győr Hockey Cup, Madácsi the best player

Four teams from the European University Hockey League (EUHL) competed in the University of Győr Hockey Cup in Hungary in recent days. Victories and their points are also counted in the league ranking.

UHT Sabers Oświęcim (Poland), UNI Győr ETO HC (Hungary), Sapientia U23 (Romania) and University Spartacus Košice (Slovakia) took part in the mentioned confrontation on the university ice. It was the last-named team who finally became the tournament winner, when it was enough for it to win over Sapientia 6:5 and to beat Győr 4:2.

„In total, we can look at those three playing days in two ways. If we take it as a tournament, we are happy that we finished first. But the other way are the victories and collecting points in the table. We are sorry for the fail after the first period in the second game (against Oświęcim), where we missed a very well played match,“ shared his impressions the head coach of the Spartacus team, Dušan Krehlík. „Performance as such in every game can be divided into better and worse minutes. In the match against Oświęcim, we played a good 20 minutes, but that’s not enough. In addition, we did not use the 5:3 power-play and that counts at the end of the game. Of course, overall a positive feeling prevails, even if this match still resonates with us,“ he continued.

For the players from Košice, these are the first ever points that they have recorded in the current EUHL season. Krehlík also revealed the recipe for the success: „I think that in a year and a half of operation, I have seen the greatest determination of the players to achieve something during these days. So I’ll say such a cliché, but our strongest weapon was a good team and the right mental setup for the games.“

„It might seem that only the players of Košice had a reason to smile after the tournament, but I have to say that every single team showed itself in a very good light. It turned out that sometimes it is enough to relax for a few minutes and it will be reflected in the final result. But I am proud of all four teams and I am happy and grateful that they participated in this tournament in Győr. Győr is the city where our newcomer in the EUHL is from, and I firmly believe that we could present the league in this way as well – that people will tune in to university hockey even more and like it in this city,“ said the General Manager of the EUHA (European University Hockey Association) Peter Špankovič.

And finally, just one taster – the best player of the tournament was Benedek Madácsi, despite the fact that his Sapientia U23 team won only one game. Madácsi scored six goals in the University of Győr Hockey Cup, assisted two others, and is currently leading the EUHL overall points ranking.