On Sunday, the Black Wings Linz qualified as second team after the Vienna Capitals for the pick round of the Erste Bank Ice Hockey League (EBEL). Thanks to a 5-2 win in Dornbirn, the Linz team secured a place in the quarter-finals. The Caps defeated the KAC in the hit of the 38. At the second round at home with 3:1 and are 13 points ahead of Linz. KAC is third.
Salzburg, who finished fourth in the standings, had to admit defeat in Zagreb with 4:5, while the fifth Innsbruck continued his run of success with a 9:2 defeat against Znojmo. Zagreb has six laps to go before the end of the basic round, the best sixth-place cards still qualifying for the pick round. The Graz 99ers were defeated in the duel of two direct rivals at Fehervar with 1:4. The VSV was at home with the 1:5 against Bolzano without chance.
Two days after their defeat against Znojmo, the Caps went into the top match between the champions and the runners-up in front of 7,022 spectators in the sold-out Albert Schultz Hall. Riley Holzapfel brought the initially dominant Viennese already in the 3rd century AD. minute in the lead. In the middle period, the KAC became increasingly stronger and came to a well-deserved equalisation (33rd) with a powerful shot from David Fischer in powerplay.
In the final third, however, the caps also made use of an over-the-counter game. MacGregor Sharp scored the target into the goal (50th) for a 2-1 win. In the finish, the Klagenfurt team, including two more men on the ice for 1:08 minutes, but the outstanding Caps goalkeeper J. P., who scored 1:08 minutes. Lamoureux kept his box clean with some strong parades. Tyler Vause finally made everything clear by scoring into the empty goal (59th).
Linz fixed his play-off participation with the fourth victory in a row, despite a few failures. Rick Schofield (8th), Jonathan D’ Aversa (29th), Dan DaSilva (36th) and Joel Broda (42nd) met in Vorarlberg for the Black Wings. Dornbirn claimed his fifth consecutive defeat and is in danger of missing the top six. The Linzers are still undefeated in 2018.
The same applies to Innsbruck. The sharks celebrated a true peat festival against Znojmo. Andrew Clark entered his marksman list three times (14th, 19th, 54th), Jeremie Ouellet-Blain met twice (6th, 24th). Shortly after the start of the third period it was 8:1. The fifth consecutive Tyrolean victory was never at risk.
As a result, Innsbruck is now only three points behind fourth-placed Salzburg. The cops won their third consecutive defeat in Zagreb with a goal difference. Two goals from Brant Harris in the first period (8th, 12th) were not enough. The decision was made by Zagreb’s Saso Rajsar three minutes to go (57 minutes).
It set a setback in the fight for a top-6 rank for Graz after last two victories in a row. In Szekesfehervar, the 99ers were already trailing by a third with 0:3. In the final section Ken Ograjensek only used cosmetics of results (58.). Graz remains the weakest away team in the league. As a ninth place in the standings, the Styrians are only one point ahead of Bolzano.
The SAAM is plunging ever deeper into the crisis. The people of Villach suffered their third defeat in series and presented themselves terrifyingly defenceless against Bolzano. The sustained goalie rotation – Lukas Herzog returned to the VSV goal instead of David Kickert – also had no effect. The South Tyroleans dominated the game from the beginning, 39:12 shots for the visitors speak volumes.