Ice Hockey: Vienna Capitals win over HC Innsbruck in Overtime

The title favourites Vienna Capitals and Red Bull Salzburg are about to enter the semi-finals of the Erste Bank Ice Hockey League (EBEL). The defending champion from Vienna defeated the Innsbruck sharks 4:3 on Tuesday after extra time, the Salzburg team beat Dornbirn 5:4. Both took the lead in the “best of seven”series with a 3-0 lead and will have their first match puck on Friday.

The statistics speak clearly for the Caps and the Red Bull, because only once in Austria did a team catch up a 0:3 in a “best of seven”series. The Black Wings Linz made this historic comeback in the semi-finals 2010 against the Vienna Capitals.

On Tuesday, the Linz team beat Medvescak Zagreb in the current play-off against Medvescak Zagreb after two defeats and cut back to 1-2 with an 8-2 win. The KAC defeated HCB Südtirol after a dramatic final phase with 2:1 after extra time and took the lead in the series with 2:1.

The capitals had to fight hard to expand the EBEL record to 15 play-off victories in series. The people of Innsbruck, who had already been beaten on Sunday after extra time, took the lead twice. After a break of about 15 minutes due to a broken plexiglass disc Andrew Yogan (19.) and Andrew Clark (23.) provided for a 2:1 advantage in favour of the sharks, in the last third Mitch Wahl brought the Tiroleans again ahead (51.). But only 51 seconds later, Ryan McKiernan managed to equalise the score again, while Andreas Nödl (64th) let the fans of the hosts cheer in extra time.

Salzburg put pressure on Dornbirn in a rousing match from the beginning, carried the game into the third period of the attack and was well deserved thanks to Brant Harris (14th). But Dornbirn, however, returned immediately and took the lead with goals from Ziga Pance and Stefan Häußle (15th) within twelve seconds. The Red Cops were still superior after that, but had to watch out for Dornbirner’s counterattacks.

Dominik Heinrich (37/PP), Thomas Raffl (38.) and Ryan Duncan (40. /PP), who used the fourth overcount game for the third Salzburg Powerplay hit, hit the home team cold in the mid-thirds finish. But Dornbirn did not give up yet and managed to equalize with the next double strike. James Arniel and Thomas Vallant (42nd) met within 15 seconds to 4:4. But it wasn’t enough for a surprise, Duncan fixed the victory for the Salzburg team, who now hold all the trump cards.

In Klagenfurt, the fans had to wait for goals in the duel of the two record champions until the end minute, but were compensated with hardly beaten final seconds. 17 seconds before the end, the efforts of the red jackets were rewarded with a happy goal. The disc jumped from a Bolzano defender to the pole, Jonathan Rheault pushed the exposed puck over the line. However, the KAC didn’t take the lead over time, with Alexander Petan’s final whistle for the match in practice. Manuel Ganahl took care of it after a nice play in the 68th minute. Kärntner’s decision and the 2:1 lead in the series.

In front of 4,865 spectators in the ice arena at home, the Linz team shot off the frustration of the two defeats at the weekend. Dan DaSilva opened the flood of goals after 70 seconds, and after 34 minutes the record was already eight times in the Croatian goal.