The Golden Puck tournament for the U-19 selection took place in Budapest from 21 to 16 April. The tournament was attended by 10 teams from Hungary, Sweden, Belarus, Slovakia, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. So there was a fairly strong international tournament, which was also the last competitive action of our young hockey players this season.
Our team set off in a slightly younger lineup. Most of the teams consisted of players from the year 2003, but there were not many of them in our ranks. As a result, the tournament was very useful and welcome for our boys.
The competition took place in two groups, where the teams played matches against each other (ie 4 matches within a group of 5 teams). On the last day, the matches for the final classification were on the schedule (the winners of the teams competed in the finals, the second placed in the small finals, etc.)
On the first day, two opponents were waiting for us. The first opponent was also the strongest at the same time. The Swedish team Viggbyholms IK was too strong and a 7-0 defeat followed (the Swedes even won the title of the best team in the tournament in the end). This was followed by the Slovak team Ružinov, where the picture from the first match was a mirror. Our players won the match with the result 7: 1.
A similar unfolding, with half the success, followed the next day. First followed by a 3-0 defeat against the German team Young Lions. Then our boys defeated the Slovak team Žilina with 2: 1. They were 1-0 behind in this match, but they turned the result around with an excellent last third. With this, the Olimpija team ranked 3rd in their group in the match for the overall 5th place. There, the Belarusian team Brest was waiting for them. Our boys won the match with the result 2: 1, which took the final 5th place in the tournament.
The coach was also pleased with the tournament Ildar Rahmatullin"The tournament was very good. All the teams were very good, which made it worthwhile to work together. Our team was in the tournament among the juniors, but the players still showed good and fighting games. We’ve seen where we are compared to certain foreign teams and we can use it all together as a good preparation for next season."
You can see some photos from the trip and the tournament at this link.
You can see more competition details about what is happening in the tournament at this link.
Written by: Vladimir Ban
