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.