EBEL: Losing Black Wings, KAC moves to second place

Ice hockey record champion KAC broke his record on Sunday after the 29th World Championships. EBEL lap to second place. The Klagenfurt team won at home against Znojmo 3-0 (2-0,0-0,1-0,1-0) and are now 14 points behind the front runner Vienna Capitals and hold two points more than the Black Wings Linz, who lost 3-4 (2-2,1-0,0-2) at the Graz 99ers.

The KAC was satisfied with a sovereign, but also dull compulsory victory to improve his rank. Bischofberger (2nd) and Ganahl (19th/PP) set the course for victory early on. Afterwards, the hosts missed out on a few chances for a better result before Rheault secured the final score with an Empty-Net Goal seconds before the final siren and sealed their eighth consecutive victory against the Czechs.

The Black Wings went to the table-seventh in Graz as losers due to a failed start and end phase. A double strike by Brophey (2nd, 10th/PP) quickly put the Styrians in the lead, after which the Upper Austrians turned the match around thanks to goals from Locke (18th/PP), DaSilva (19th) and Hofer (36th).

The finish, however, was dominated by the hosts, Carlsson (54th) and Higgs (55th) who made it to 4-3. After seven victories in Graz and five EBEL successes en suite, it was again a defeat for Linz. The opportunity for revenge is already available on Tuesday with the right to return home.

Due to the drop of the Black Wings, fourth-placed Red Bull Salzburg moved up to four points to the Upper Austrians. At home 6:2 against the VSV, Mozartstädter already led with 6:0 thanks to Baltram (14th), Stajnoch (23rd, 43rd/PP), Raffl (26th, 54th) and Mueller (50th), before the tenth-placed Villachern were able to achieve a cosmetics result with Platzer (57th) and Sarauer (58th). It was the fifth consecutive victory for the Salzburg team and the Villacher’s fifth defeat in the recent six games.