On the opening day of the 2024 Men's Final Olympic Ice Hockey Qualification Group D in Bratislava, a Nikita Mikhailis hat trick paced Kazakhstan to a 5-2 victory over Hungary. Meanwhile, host Slovakia withstood a late attack to win 2-1 over Austria before a full house.
Kazakhstan 5 Hungary 2 (1-0, 2-2, 2-0)
Both teams probably viewed this game as their most winnable of the three this weekend, and the Kazakhs were more opportunistic on their chances. Hungary held a wide 37-15 edge in shots, but found goaltender Andrey Shutov – playing in his home rink in Bratislava – difficult to solve. At the other end, Hungarian goalie Bence Balizs was especially terrorized by Nikita Mikhailis, whose hat trick paced Kazakhstan offensively.
“I really liked the way we played,” said Hungarian coach Milan Horvath. “We were really intense and, for the most part, we played disciplined hockey. We dominated the game and outchanced them, but unfortunately, they outscored us.”
Mikhailis scored the first period’s lone goal at 15:55 on the power play, taking a pass from Arkadi Shestakov and freezing Balizs with a nice fake before sliding the puck through the Hungarian goalie’s pads.
Early in the second period, 16-year-old Damon Szongoth tied it for Hungary when he found the puck in a scrum and fired it into the open part of the net.
“I was just driving to the net and I saw the puck and just put it in,” Szongoth said. “It was amazing, with all the fans.”
Back on even terms and with their famously fanatical fans in top form, the Hungarians pushed hard for the lead. But Shutov shone, denying Marton Nemes and Kristof Papp in succession. And then just past the game’s midpoint, Kazakhstan struck twice less than three minutes apart to take control of the game, with 20-year-old defenceman Dmitri Breus factoring in on both.
“The game was very intense,” said Breus. “Hungary was very strong on offence and it was hard to get out of the zone but we managed to score five goals, which is good, and we won.”
Breus’ first goal with the national team gave the lead back to Kazakhstan when he one-timed a perfect pass from Kirill Savitskiy. Then Breus fed Maxim Mukhametov, who picked up speed on the right wing and surprised Balizs on the backhand.
“‘Sava’ passed to me and I shot it right away,” Breus said about the goal.
Veteran Istvan Sofron got one back for Hungary just 1:11 later when he nicely deflected a shot from Henrik Nilsson, but that would be all the offence for Hungary.
In the third period, Mikhailis got his second goal with 11:12 to play when his pass attempt from below the goal line hit Balizs’ skate and went in. Then, after the Hungarians failed to convert on a power play, Mikhailis completed his hat trick on a breakaway with under seven minutes to play.
“We need to put this game out of our heads now because the next games are very important and we have to win them too,” said Breus, referring to the upcoming games against Austria and Slovakia.
Slovakia 2 Austria 1 (0-0, 2-1, 0-0)
The nightcap saw Slovakia dominate starting in the first period, but then the Austrians pushed back hard, falling just short.
“I think Slovakia was happy when the game finished,” said Austrian coach Roger Bader. “The longer the game went, the better we played. In the first period, Slovakia forechecked a lot in the offensive zone, but I think the last period was really strong.”
The Slovaks held a 14-7 edge in shots in the first period thanks to three straight power plays, but were unable convert. Thanks to great Austrian penalty-killing and goalie David Kickert, who made big saves off Marek Hrivik and Simon Nemec on the game’s first power play, this affair remained scoreless until well into the second period.
Just past the midpoint, the Slovaks got a fourth straight power play, generating chances but still failing to convert. However, Kristian Pospisil made a great play to keep the puck in the Austrian zone. He then passed to his brother Martin Pospisil, who found Martin Gernat for the one-timer that beat Kickert short side at 12:16, just six seconds after the penalty’s expiry.
Austria had an excellent chance to answer a minute and a half later, but netminder Samuel Hlavaj stoned Peter Schneider right in front. Then just a minute later, Samuel Knazko set up Milos Kelemen, whose shot went right through Kickert to make it 2-0.
“In the first period and even the first half of the second, there weren’t many shots, but when they started coming, it was pretty hard,” said Hlavaj. “In the second half of the second period, they started to skate.”
Austria managed to get one goal back in the dying seconds of the second period. On a 5-on-3 advantage, Marco Kasper won the faceoff in the attacking zone, then went to the front of the net where he appeared to deflect Dominique Heinrich’s rising slapper past Hlavaj. It was originally ruled on the ice that Kasper had contacted the puck with a high stick, but upon video review, it was determined that the contact was below the height of the crossbar, and Austria was on the board.
The Austrians tried to pull out the stops in the third period and pushed for the equalizer. Clemens Unterweger had a great chance early in the frame but was denied by Hlavaj. Then Austria failed to convert on a power play in the middle of the period. Kickert was pulled for a sixth attacker with over two minutes to play but Slovakia held on for the win.