The Euro Ice Hockey Challenge Cup in Kiev was a good opportunity for team Romania to prepare for the World Championship this year said Zsombor Antal.
"I am glad that we participated in a tournament of this level. We managed to keep the up the pace and play good games against opponents that skated very well and were well prepared physically. It was an excellent preparation tournament, where we were without the complete roster, but even so we had good results. I am very glad for those two goals scored against the Italians: at the first goal I received an excellent pass from Szöcs Szabolcs, I only had to score in the empty net, and at the second goal Nagy István gave a me a breakaway pass; maybe it was offside, but it is offside only if the referee whistles which he did not do, so with a dribble I managed to score. I am also happy for the goal scored in Lithuania's net. I feel that the result we had in this tournament was also the expected one from the management. I hope that we will play with the full roster at the World Championship and this way we will manage to obtain the proposed objectives”, said Zsombor Antal.
Also forward Szabolcs Szöcs says that tournaments such as those in Kiev help coaches and players properly assess the team.
"It was good that we managed to play against big teams like Ukraine and Lithuania, a team that we will have as opponent in the World Cup in April, but especially Italy. We managed to get an idea about the style of play that Lithuania uses, which will be useful for us. It is encouraging that we managed to have a tight match against the national team of Italy. We hope to obtain good results at the World Cup in April and we expect to make a little surprise. These international tournaments are welcomed, this way we can evaluate our strength against bigger teams."