Ice Hockey Austria: Caps celebrate next victory, 99ers turn game

Even after the 7th round, Vienna Capitals remain undefeated at the top of the Erste Bank Ice Hockey League. The Viennese won the HCB Südtirol on Friday with 2:1 and are six points ahead of Graz before the Saturday match. The 99ers turned the duel with Dornbirn to a 5:3 victory, the Black Wings Linz to a 6:5 victory after overtime at Fehervar. Salzburg won the VSV 4:0.

The Vienna Capitals also continued their series with the EBEL champion, the ex-Bolzano DeSousa delivered the Assist 1:0 by Nissner. After the hosts had equalised, Holzapfel fixed the seventh victory of the Viennese (50th), who had also fired significantly more shots on goal in the first and last third. Last season they were eliminated in the play-off semi-final against Bolzano.

Graz were already 0:3 behind the Vorarlberger after 27 minutes, Dornbirn seemed to be heading for the fourth away win in the fourth match. But within less than ten minutes, the 99ers managed to equalise, with two goals outnumbered to prove their strength in powerplay. In the final section, Garbowsky (44th) and Yellow Horn (55th) respectively scored their second goal to mark the fifth success of coach Doug Mason’s team. Graz (14 points) overtook the KAC (13), which, however, played two matches less.

The Black Wings Linz had to run a long time behind the home strong Hungarians. They equalised four times, the last time 5-5 with Brocklehurst’s second goal just 73 seconds from time. In the overtime, however, Da Silva made the third success of the Upper Austrians, who started the season weakly, perfect after 100 seconds, Fehervar lost in the fourth game in front of his own fans for the first time.

The VSV had won their three home games after extra time, but there was nothing to win against Salzburg. The “bulls” celebrated another victory after a 9:0 against Fehervar. Ex-VSV-Goalie Herzog celebrated the second Shut-Out in a row, the ex-Villacher Hughes (30.), Raffl (39.) and Rauchenwald (55.) scored the goals two to four each in powerplay.