At the start of the Erste Bank Ice Hockey League (EBEL) play-off, defending champion Vienna Capitals has not really been challenged. The Viennese beat Innsbruck 4-1 in the first game of the “best of seven”quarter-finals on Friday. Salzburg celebrated a 3-2 overtime victory against Dornbirn. Linz lost after extra time 3:4 against Zagreb, the KAC defeated Bolzano 1:3.
The Viennese, who had shot Innsbruck 4-0 from the ice in last year’s quarter-finals, took the lead in the third minute with a Jerry Pollastrone powerplay strike. Even after that, Rene Swette had a lot of work to do in the visitors’ goal – not least for the reason that his assistants received many avoidable penalties. The fact that defender Jamie Fraser also outnumbered the second goal was symptomatic of the first period.
But it was not only disciplinary offences that made life difficult for the Tyroleans. Capitals captain Andreas Nödl overcame Swette with a shot, where he stood next to the right-hand bully circle. In view of the sharp corner, the goalie made an unfortunate appearance and Swette was replaced shortly afterwards. In the middle third the favourite had more trouble. However, Nödl was able to score 4-0 for the Caps from a central position in the attack zone, before both sides had their fists blown.
Even in the final period, the Innsbruckers had little to set against, but nevertheless came to the 1:4 honor goal by Sacha Guimond (45.). A brawl resulted in 10-minute disciplinary penalties for Rafael Rotter, Andrew Yogan and Jeremie Ouellet-Blain respectively. 55 minutes of punishment had come to an end for Innsbruck:”We were simply undisciplined,”said Innsbruck coach Rob Pallin.
Salzburg was at first safe against Dornbirn and presented itself efficiently in the attack. Raphael Heuburger (6th) and Thomas Raffl (31st/PP) wrote for the “Red Bull”, but Martin Grabher Meier (49st) and Christopher D’ Alvise (59th) shot the people of Vorarlberg into extra time. After 23 seconds, Herburger scored a 1-0 win for the hosts in the series.
The Black Wings were initially superior to the outsider Zagreb in their own arena and quickly advanced through goals scored by Joel Broda (8th) and Brian Lebler (14th). However, the Croats beat back and equalised to 3-3 at the start of the final period thanks to Tomas Kudelka (41th). On several occasions, the Linzer were missing centimetres to the winner’s goal, Mikko Lehtonen, for example, scratched the puck off the line shortly before the end. The Finn then became the match-winner for Zagreb: with his second goal, a backhander, he won the match in the fifth minute of extra time.
Record champion KAC also got a very bad play-off start. The Carinthians had won all four games against Bolzano in the first half of the match, but it was just now that they had lost their first match 3-1 on their own ice. The result wasn’t undeserved, because the KAC often acted too complicated and didn’t get the target onto the goal. The South Tyroleans, on the other hand, convinced with straightforward and fast hockey, were also stronger in their duel and better in the end.