2025 Worlds Report Card: Hungary

Hungary's return to the top division at Women's Worlds ended in disappointment, as the team failed to record a win in group play and has once again been relegated to Division 1A. As I wrote in my preview, it's been a cycle of promotion and relegation for the team over the past few years, and that cycle continues.

Hungary opened the tournament with three straight shutout losses, dropping 2-0 decisions to Sweden and Japan and a 3-0 decision to Norway. The team finally recorded its first goal in the final game of group play, but lost 4-1 to Germany.

Offense: D-

Getting shut out in three of four preliminary round games is less than ideal. Hungary finished the group play round with just one goal, tied for fewest with Switzerland. The offense just could not beat the opposing goaltenders. It wasn't for lack of trying, though. Hungary outshot its opponent in two of the four games, including by a 45-21 margin against Norway.

An additional 63 shots by Hungary were blocked over the course of the four games, so their opponents did a good job of preventing those opportunities.

Emma Kreisz, who just finished her second season with the Minnesota Golden Gophers, had the lone goal. She also scored in the Olympic qualifiers earlier this year.

Defense: C

None of the games were particularly high-scoring, and all were either lost by a two- or three-goal margin. While it's still obviously not good to have lost all the games, the fact that they were still relatively close is a good thing, even when considering the strength of the opponents.

The defense allowed 89 shots against in the four games, averaging 22.25 shots against per game. An additional 94 shots against were blocked by Hungarian players, so they did a fair job of getting in the way.

Goaltending: B

Anikó Németh finished the tournament with a respectable 2.03 GAA, fifth-best among all netminders and best of all Group B goaltenders outside of Sweden's Emma Söderberg. On the flip side - and pointing to Hungary's aforementioned defense blocking shots - she actually faced the third-fewest shots of any netminder.

Németh played in all four games, allowing eight goals on 86 shots faced in 236:24. She finished the tournament with a .907 save percentage and was named one of Hungary's best three players. She was also named player of the game in the loss to Sweden.

MVP

Anikó Németh was Hungary's MVP in this tournament, for the aforementioned reasons. Her efforts helped keep the games relatively close, even if they did ultimately result in losses.