Danish forward Mikkel Aagaard (left, #29) celebrates with teammate Nick Olesen after getting Denmark's comeback started in an 8-2 shellacking of Hungary at the 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.
photo: PHOTO: © INTERNATIONAL ICE HOCKEY FEDERATION / MATT ZAMBONIN
Hungary grabbed an early two-goal lead, but host Denmark roared back with eight unanswered goals en route to a big 8-2 win at the 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship on Friday.
The atmosphere was tense at Jyske Bank Boxen with both teams needing points in the Group B fight against relegation. But the Danes certainly found a way to reward their loyal fans.
"I thought we had a pretty decent game today," said Danish blueliner Markus Lauridsen, who scored twice. "Obviously a tough start, but we didn't panic. We believed in ourselves and our capabilities. We just came out and worked at it and scored a lot of goals."
The Danes, who beat Kazakhstan 5-1 in their last outing and now have six points, have little time to celebrate. They're back at it versus Nordic rival Norway on Saturday night. Hungary, still at three points, gets a day off before facing 2024 silver medalist Switzerland on Sunday.
"I think if you asked us, before the tournament started, realistically, we knew the first three games would be tough games," Denmark's Nicklas Jensen explained. "You go into them hoping you could steal a point or two or three. It didn't happen. But I thought we kept our coolness and knew that these are the games where we have to take points. Having six points right now is having a chance in our hands. Hopefully we get the big teams to beat the teams we need the rest of the tournament, and then we've got to show up in the last two games."
Versus Hungary, Mikkel Aagaard stepped up with a hat trick. Captain Jesper Jensen Aabo, Mathias Bau, and Patrick Russell also scored for Denmark. Oscar Moelgaard had three assists.
It was Aagaard's first three-goal performance in an Ice Hockey World Championship game. The Skelleftea veteran totalled just three goals in his previous 37 top-division games.
"He's been hot lately in his regular seasons in Sweden, so it's good to see him get on the scoreboard with the national team," said Nicklas Jensen. "I don't even want to call it secondary scoring. We need the scoring from all our guys, and hopefully I can start getting going too!"
Peter Vincze and Andras Mihalik scored for Hungary. Denmark outshot Hungary 41-12.
"This score is unacceptable for us," Mihalik said. "We have values. We have character, and we didn't show that today. We've been talking about our great fans here at this tournament. During these past four games, we were able to make them happy and make them satisfied. There's the hockey side, but there is also 50 percent of the fan side, because they spend a lot of their time and money to come here. Of course, in hockey there's some downsides, but for the fans, we always have to stand up. That's not about the score, not about the final result."
Unusually, both starting goalies were pulled in this showdown. Denmark's Sebastian Dahm was beaten on two of Hungary’s first three shots and replaced by Frederik Dichow less than seven minutes in. Hungary's Bence Balizs gave way to Adam Vay late in the second period after the Danes scored twice in 26 seconds to gain a lead they never relinquished.
The Hungarians scored in the first minute of both the first and third periods when they beat Kazakhstan 4-2. They got off to another fast start here on the power play after Oscar Moelgaard was sent off for tripping at 0:18. Following the offensive-zone draw, it took just 15 seconds for Vincze to cash in with a slapper, as Janos Hari found him in the slot with a pass from the right faceoff circle.
Hungary then went up 2-0. From behind the goal line, Bence Szabo backhanded a pass to Mihalik at the bottom of the left faceoff circle, and he sniped the puck over the kneeling Dahm at 6:23. It was the DEAC forward’s second goal. Mihalik also got Hungary's lone goal in a 6-1 loss to Czechia.
Getting pulled was rough for Dahm. The 38-year-old EC-KAC veteran is competing in his 11th Ice Hockey World Championship and first since 2022, as he took a break from the national team. Dahm had 30 saves in his other appearance, a 5-2 loss to the Swiss.
After hitting a couple of posts on their first power play, the Danes finally got some puck luck on the second one. Nick Olesen’s hard feed was deflected in by Aagaard at 13:22, well-positioned in the slot to surprise Balizs.
Things got testier given the high stakes. A scrum ensued when Aagaard skated up to Balizs and gave him a little snow shower.
Denmark carried the play in the second period. Markus Lauridsen finally notched the equalizer off the rush with a nice wrister at 7:37, using the defender as a decoy and firing the puck under Balizs' blocker arm.
Hungary tried to counterattack, but to no avail. Nearing the 11-minute mark, Dichow came up huge to deny Tamas Ortenzky on a breakaway.
Finally, the Danes took their first lead at 14:23. Bau powered down the right side and dished the puck in front to Jensen Aabo, who shoveled it in.
Just 26 seconds later, it was 4-2 Denmark off the rush. Russell made no mistake on a juicy Frederik Tiffels rebound at the side of the net.
"We worked our asses off to get back into the game, and it paid off," Markus Lauridsen said.
At 3:41 of the third period, Aagaard added some breathing room, converting a rebound as Vay got caught sprawling out of position. Alexander True bulled his way off the side boards to set up Bau for a sweet one-timer and a 6-2 lead at 8:45. Aagaard completed his hat trick just 28 seconds later, taking a drop pass from Moelgaard and getting plenty of time and space to cruise in and score.
With under eight minutes left, Markus Lauridsen rounded out the scoring at 8-2 on a power play goal through traffic. The teams paraded to the penalty box before the final buzzer.
Looking ahead to the next game, Markus Lauridsen said: "It's always tough games against Norway. It's one of those teams we've always had pretty even games against, and it's probably going to be a physical one as well. But we've got to put together 60 good minutes and make sure we limit our mistakes, and then we know we can score some goals."
Denmark also won its two previous meetings with Hungary at the Ice Hockey World Championship. In 2009, Morten Green had a goal and three assists in a 5-1 relegation round win in Berne. In 2023, Nikolaj Ehlers scored twice in a 3-1 preliminary round victory in Tampere.
The atmosphere was tense at Jyske Bank Boxen with both teams needing points in the Group B fight against relegation. But the Danes certainly found a way to reward their loyal fans.
"I thought we had a pretty decent game today," said Danish blueliner Markus Lauridsen, who scored twice. "Obviously a tough start, but we didn't panic. We believed in ourselves and our capabilities. We just came out and worked at it and scored a lot of goals."
The Danes, who beat Kazakhstan 5-1 in their last outing and now have six points, have little time to celebrate. They're back at it versus Nordic rival Norway on Saturday night. Hungary, still at three points, gets a day off before facing 2024 silver medalist Switzerland on Sunday.
"I think if you asked us, before the tournament started, realistically, we knew the first three games would be tough games," Denmark's Nicklas Jensen explained. "You go into them hoping you could steal a point or two or three. It didn't happen. But I thought we kept our coolness and knew that these are the games where we have to take points. Having six points right now is having a chance in our hands. Hopefully we get the big teams to beat the teams we need the rest of the tournament, and then we've got to show up in the last two games."
Versus Hungary, Mikkel Aagaard stepped up with a hat trick. Captain Jesper Jensen Aabo, Mathias Bau, and Patrick Russell also scored for Denmark. Oscar Moelgaard had three assists.
It was Aagaard's first three-goal performance in an Ice Hockey World Championship game. The Skelleftea veteran totalled just three goals in his previous 37 top-division games.
"He's been hot lately in his regular seasons in Sweden, so it's good to see him get on the scoreboard with the national team," said Nicklas Jensen. "I don't even want to call it secondary scoring. We need the scoring from all our guys, and hopefully I can start getting going too!"
Peter Vincze and Andras Mihalik scored for Hungary. Denmark outshot Hungary 41-12.
"This score is unacceptable for us," Mihalik said. "We have values. We have character, and we didn't show that today. We've been talking about our great fans here at this tournament. During these past four games, we were able to make them happy and make them satisfied. There's the hockey side, but there is also 50 percent of the fan side, because they spend a lot of their time and money to come here. Of course, in hockey there's some downsides, but for the fans, we always have to stand up. That's not about the score, not about the final result."
Unusually, both starting goalies were pulled in this showdown. Denmark's Sebastian Dahm was beaten on two of Hungary’s first three shots and replaced by Frederik Dichow less than seven minutes in. Hungary's Bence Balizs gave way to Adam Vay late in the second period after the Danes scored twice in 26 seconds to gain a lead they never relinquished.
The Hungarians scored in the first minute of both the first and third periods when they beat Kazakhstan 4-2. They got off to another fast start here on the power play after Oscar Moelgaard was sent off for tripping at 0:18. Following the offensive-zone draw, it took just 15 seconds for Vincze to cash in with a slapper, as Janos Hari found him in the slot with a pass from the right faceoff circle.
Hungary then went up 2-0. From behind the goal line, Bence Szabo backhanded a pass to Mihalik at the bottom of the left faceoff circle, and he sniped the puck over the kneeling Dahm at 6:23. It was the DEAC forward’s second goal. Mihalik also got Hungary's lone goal in a 6-1 loss to Czechia.
Getting pulled was rough for Dahm. The 38-year-old EC-KAC veteran is competing in his 11th Ice Hockey World Championship and first since 2022, as he took a break from the national team. Dahm had 30 saves in his other appearance, a 5-2 loss to the Swiss.
After hitting a couple of posts on their first power play, the Danes finally got some puck luck on the second one. Nick Olesen’s hard feed was deflected in by Aagaard at 13:22, well-positioned in the slot to surprise Balizs.
Things got testier given the high stakes. A scrum ensued when Aagaard skated up to Balizs and gave him a little snow shower.
Denmark carried the play in the second period. Markus Lauridsen finally notched the equalizer off the rush with a nice wrister at 7:37, using the defender as a decoy and firing the puck under Balizs' blocker arm.
Hungary tried to counterattack, but to no avail. Nearing the 11-minute mark, Dichow came up huge to deny Tamas Ortenzky on a breakaway.
Finally, the Danes took their first lead at 14:23. Bau powered down the right side and dished the puck in front to Jensen Aabo, who shoveled it in.
Just 26 seconds later, it was 4-2 Denmark off the rush. Russell made no mistake on a juicy Frederik Tiffels rebound at the side of the net.
"We worked our asses off to get back into the game, and it paid off," Markus Lauridsen said.
At 3:41 of the third period, Aagaard added some breathing room, converting a rebound as Vay got caught sprawling out of position. Alexander True bulled his way off the side boards to set up Bau for a sweet one-timer and a 6-2 lead at 8:45. Aagaard completed his hat trick just 28 seconds later, taking a drop pass from Moelgaard and getting plenty of time and space to cruise in and score.
With under eight minutes left, Markus Lauridsen rounded out the scoring at 8-2 on a power play goal through traffic. The teams paraded to the penalty box before the final buzzer.
Looking ahead to the next game, Markus Lauridsen said: "It's always tough games against Norway. It's one of those teams we've always had pretty even games against, and it's probably going to be a physical one as well. But we've got to put together 60 good minutes and make sure we limit our mistakes, and then we know we can score some goals."
Denmark also won its two previous meetings with Hungary at the Ice Hockey World Championship. In 2009, Morten Green had a goal and three assists in a 5-1 relegation round win in Berne. In 2023, Nikolaj Ehlers scored twice in a 3-1 preliminary round victory in Tampere.