Teammates celebrate Aniko Nemeth en route to promotion at the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship Division I Group A.
photo: Laszlo Mudra
21 August 2021 will mark history for Hungarian hockey as the country will for the first time play at a top-level IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship.
It was a long wait since earning promotion due to the Covid-19 pandemic but the wait was worth it and the heroines who earned promotion on home ice in Budapest in 2019 stuck together to get their elite experience in Canada.
One player who is naturally in the centre of attention at a promoted team is the goaltender but that’s nothing new for Aniko Nemeth, who also helped Hungary earn promotion at the U18 Women’s Worlds where they stayed for two years in 2013 and 2014.
“I was a young girl and I was nervous but with the team it went well. The biggest game was against Canada and I was the first goalie. But we just lost 4-1, it was a good result for Hungary,” Nemeth recalls.
It was the first game of the tournament and Hungary kept the score low with a 2-1 second-period lead for Canada. Eventually Canada won 4-1 and Nemeth made 35 saves.
Fast forward six years and you see Nemeth and her Hungarian teammates beat Norway, lose a neighbouring clash to Slovakia in shootout but bounce back with victories against Denmark, Italy and Austria to win the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship Division I Group A on home ice in Budapest at a Vasas Ice Centre packed with nearly 2,000 fans.
“It was the biggest moment for me because we reached the top division. It was a big tournament for the Hungarian national team. It was really good because there were many fans. We got a lot of support from fans, families and friends,” recalls Nemeth, whose favourite goaltender Henrik Lundqvist retired yesterday. “It helped us win the tournament. We were a team, we worked a lot on ourselves all year.”
“I think women’s hockey got more recognition after we got promoted to the top level and this made more and more young girls start to play hockey. Of course getting more recognition also led to more professional circumstances. Therefore we have more people working around us and better tools and equipment.”
The Budapest native started to play hockey when she was eight years old together with her twin sister Bernadett, who remained her teammate until this day on the national team.
“When I played hockey there was no goalie and I went into the net and stayed while my sister played defence,” she explains.
It was a long wait since earning promotion due to the Covid-19 pandemic but the wait was worth it and the heroines who earned promotion on home ice in Budapest in 2019 stuck together to get their elite experience in Canada.
One player who is naturally in the centre of attention at a promoted team is the goaltender but that’s nothing new for Aniko Nemeth, who also helped Hungary earn promotion at the U18 Women’s Worlds where they stayed for two years in 2013 and 2014.
“I was a young girl and I was nervous but with the team it went well. The biggest game was against Canada and I was the first goalie. But we just lost 4-1, it was a good result for Hungary,” Nemeth recalls.
It was the first game of the tournament and Hungary kept the score low with a 2-1 second-period lead for Canada. Eventually Canada won 4-1 and Nemeth made 35 saves.
Fast forward six years and you see Nemeth and her Hungarian teammates beat Norway, lose a neighbouring clash to Slovakia in shootout but bounce back with victories against Denmark, Italy and Austria to win the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship Division I Group A on home ice in Budapest at a Vasas Ice Centre packed with nearly 2,000 fans.
“It was the biggest moment for me because we reached the top division. It was a big tournament for the Hungarian national team. It was really good because there were many fans. We got a lot of support from fans, families and friends,” recalls Nemeth, whose favourite goaltender Henrik Lundqvist retired yesterday. “It helped us win the tournament. We were a team, we worked a lot on ourselves all year.”
“I think women’s hockey got more recognition after we got promoted to the top level and this made more and more young girls start to play hockey. Of course getting more recognition also led to more professional circumstances. Therefore we have more people working around us and better tools and equipment.”
The Budapest native started to play hockey when she was eight years old together with her twin sister Bernadett, who remained her teammate until this day on the national team.
“When I played hockey there was no goalie and I went into the net and stayed while my sister played defence,” she explains.
Twin sisters Aniko and Bernadett Nemeth in Calgary.
photo: Matt Zambonin / HHOF-IIHF Images
And she didn’t have to regret it. She was part of a generation that led Hungary to top-level hockey as teenagers and later won two Best Goaltender awards with the senior national team at Division I level (2016, 2017).
She also worked among international goaltenders and coaches from top to smaller countries when she was invited to the 2019 IIHF Women’s Goaltending Development Camp not far from home in Slovakia.
“It was a very good camp. I learned a lot from other coaches from other countries. I learned more about tracking the puck and play big, because I’m not the biggest goalie,” says Nemeth, who is listed as 165 cm (5'5'') on the Hungarian roster.
The planned top-level debut some months after the camp got delayed. “It made me a bit disappointed but I understood the situation, and that we need to act according to the fact that a global pandemic is happening. Later on I also realized this gives us one more year to prepare, to get stronger and better as a team,” she looks back. After the moved dates and venue this year she skipped holidays and used the summer to prepare for the biggest tournament of her life.
“The news [of the new dates] made me feel very happy and gave my motivation back. It was a different summer since I wasn’t able to relax or go on a holidays. It was all about hockey, practising, preparing and trying to be ready and to be able to bring out the best from me.”
Something else that was different was that the Hungarian women’s national team was for the first time coached by a female coach, Lisa Haley from Canada.
“I think she is a really good coach. She has high expectations on and off the ice as well. I feel thankful for all the people or coaches I have worked with. It also feels good to have our first female head coach, who knows how it is to be a female hockey player and has experienced the same difficulties that we had before,” she says.
The Hungarian national team had a camp every month before travelling to Calgary. The five-day quarantine she and her teammate spent with video calls including body-weight training and spinning sessions. She talked with her teammates, family and friends back home and watched Netflix. And if she was bored she juggled with tennis balls and water bottles.
In Calgary she will again play with her twin sister Bernadett, who is more than a twin sister for her when they go onto the ice.
“Actually, she is my other half on the ice. I can’t imagine the team without her,” she says. “I have a lot of rituals before the games but the special ritual with my sister is on the ice during warm-up. First she shoots on my gloves where we have a special rhythm. It is a big part of my warm-up. I have some simple drills that we always do together. Before the warm-up ends we are passing each other, so I start and finish the warm-up with her.”
After having been on the ice since Monday including a 4-2 exhibition-game loss against Japan the Hungarians will start the tournament today at noon local time against Germany.
“It’s a big moment. I’m so excited,” she says about the premiere in Calgary. “We have been working very hard for many years as a team. It is our first chance to participate in the top division, so our goal would be to win a couple games and to finish in the quarter-finals.”
Hungary plays Germany, the Czech Republic, Japan and Denmark for a top-3 finish in Group B to reach a quarter-final match-up against a team from the higher Group A. “It would be nice to play USA or Canada or Russia,” she says.
And once the team gets back to Hungary early September, Nemeth and her teammates have the next goal on the horizon.
“I want to play in the Olympic Games,” she says. And don’t count the Hungarians out for Beijing 2022 as they will play the Final Olympic Qualification in Chomutov in the Czech Republic. The Czechs will thus be a key opponent both in Calgary for a quarter-final spot and on the opponent’s ice for a ticket to Beijing.
“It would be a dream come true if we could make it to the Olympics. In the world of hockey everything is possible, just look at the fact that we made it here,” she says.
She also worked among international goaltenders and coaches from top to smaller countries when she was invited to the 2019 IIHF Women’s Goaltending Development Camp not far from home in Slovakia.
“It was a very good camp. I learned a lot from other coaches from other countries. I learned more about tracking the puck and play big, because I’m not the biggest goalie,” says Nemeth, who is listed as 165 cm (5'5'') on the Hungarian roster.
The planned top-level debut some months after the camp got delayed. “It made me a bit disappointed but I understood the situation, and that we need to act according to the fact that a global pandemic is happening. Later on I also realized this gives us one more year to prepare, to get stronger and better as a team,” she looks back. After the moved dates and venue this year she skipped holidays and used the summer to prepare for the biggest tournament of her life.
“The news [of the new dates] made me feel very happy and gave my motivation back. It was a different summer since I wasn’t able to relax or go on a holidays. It was all about hockey, practising, preparing and trying to be ready and to be able to bring out the best from me.”
Something else that was different was that the Hungarian women’s national team was for the first time coached by a female coach, Lisa Haley from Canada.
“I think she is a really good coach. She has high expectations on and off the ice as well. I feel thankful for all the people or coaches I have worked with. It also feels good to have our first female head coach, who knows how it is to be a female hockey player and has experienced the same difficulties that we had before,” she says.
The Hungarian national team had a camp every month before travelling to Calgary. The five-day quarantine she and her teammate spent with video calls including body-weight training and spinning sessions. She talked with her teammates, family and friends back home and watched Netflix. And if she was bored she juggled with tennis balls and water bottles.
In Calgary she will again play with her twin sister Bernadett, who is more than a twin sister for her when they go onto the ice.
“Actually, she is my other half on the ice. I can’t imagine the team without her,” she says. “I have a lot of rituals before the games but the special ritual with my sister is on the ice during warm-up. First she shoots on my gloves where we have a special rhythm. It is a big part of my warm-up. I have some simple drills that we always do together. Before the warm-up ends we are passing each other, so I start and finish the warm-up with her.”
After having been on the ice since Monday including a 4-2 exhibition-game loss against Japan the Hungarians will start the tournament today at noon local time against Germany.
“It’s a big moment. I’m so excited,” she says about the premiere in Calgary. “We have been working very hard for many years as a team. It is our first chance to participate in the top division, so our goal would be to win a couple games and to finish in the quarter-finals.”
Hungary plays Germany, the Czech Republic, Japan and Denmark for a top-3 finish in Group B to reach a quarter-final match-up against a team from the higher Group A. “It would be nice to play USA or Canada or Russia,” she says.
And once the team gets back to Hungary early September, Nemeth and her teammates have the next goal on the horizon.
“I want to play in the Olympic Games,” she says. And don’t count the Hungarians out for Beijing 2022 as they will play the Final Olympic Qualification in Chomutov in the Czech Republic. The Czechs will thus be a key opponent both in Calgary for a quarter-final spot and on the opponent’s ice for a ticket to Beijing.
“It would be a dream come true if we could make it to the Olympics. In the world of hockey everything is possible, just look at the fact that we made it here,” she says.