Vienna Capitals has suffered its third consecutive defeat in Erste Bank Eishockey Liga. On Wednesday the front runner went against the reigning EBEL champion HCB South Tyrol as a 1:4-(1:1,0:2,0:1) loser from home ice. In the table the advantage of the Viennese over the pursuers melted away. After a 4:0 (1:0,0:0,3:0) in Znojmo the Graz 99ers have moved close to four points.
Red Bull Salzburg celebrated a peat festival. The third defeated the VSV with 7:3 (3:1,2:2,2:0). The Black Wings Linz won a battle at the HC Innsbruck thanks to a strong final third with 4:3 (1:1,0:1,3:1). The KAC lost a little surprisingly Fehervar at home with 1:2 after extra time (1:1,0:0,0:0-0:1). Dornbirn won against Medvescak Zagreb 5:2 (1:1,2:1,2:0).
In Vienna, the “caps” began after the two defeats against the KAC and Fehervar engaged. The people of Bolzano were initially defensively occupied. The lead of the Viennese by the former HCB actor Chris DeSousa in the 7th minute was not undeserved. After a strong quarter of an hour, however, the guests managed to slow down the momentum of the Capitals. A rather tired game developed.
The South Tyroleans were able to equalise with Andrew Crescenzi (20.) after preparatory work by the criminally neglected Marco Insam. The Capitals then hit the crossbar (27th) in the middle third by Peter Schneider, but caught two goals within nine seconds. Markus Nordlund in Powerplay and Michael Blunden (both 29th) made a preliminary decision in favour of the Bolzano team. Their leadership was not undeserved in sum. In the final third, Daniel Glira (45th) quickly added to the score for Bolzano, and the champion was closer to the fifth goal than the Viennese to their second.
In Znojmo, Robin Rahm made a successful debut in the 99ers’ goal with a shut-out. The Swede fired all 24 of the Czechs’ shots. For the Styrians Daniel Oberkofler scored in the 7th minute, after that Zintis Zusevics, Robin Weihager and Matt Garbowsky went on.
Salzburg laid the foundation for the home win against Villach already in the first third. Seven different goal scorers scored for the Mozart city dwellers. For the Black Wings, Brian Lebler was decisively successful 9:38 minutes before the final siren. The Linz team were 0:1 and 1:2 behind in Innsbruck, but missed a 3:2 intermediate lead. The Upper Austrians, sixth in the standings, thus increased their lead over their rivals. Dornbirn is now equal in points to Fehervar Siebenter. Joel Broda scored twice in Vorarlberg’s success against Zagreb with his important goals to 2:1 (25th) and 3:1 (31st /PP).
The fifth-placed KAC again offered a rather poor performance in Klagenfurt. The red jackets had a hard time against very defensive Hungarians. Fehervar defended effectively and could not be disturbed by the early 0:1 by Stefan Geier (4th). Bence Stipsicz equalised less than five minutes later. In overtime, the criminally abandoned defender finally became the Hungarian match winner with the decisive goal.