Ice Hockey Austria: Furiose Caps take the lead

Vienna Capitals stormed to the top of the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (EBEL) table on Friday. The Viennese team finished Medvescak Zagreb 5:0 in front of their own audience thanks to an outstanding Taylor Vause and passed the KAC and the Graz 99ers. The Klagenfurt team lost 4:8 to Znojmo on the road, the Graz team lost 2:3 to Red Bull Salzburg in the 26th round.

For the Salzburgers, it was the next success after their 3-2 win on Tuesday in the Champions Hockey League quarter-final first leg against the Finnish representative Kärpät Oulu. The Black Wings Linz stayed close to the four top teams with a 5-0 victory at HC Innsbruck. The sixth HCB South Tyrol defeated VSV with 3:1. Fehervar kept the upper hand against Dornbirn with 5:2.

The Caps were at least one class stronger than the Croats and converted their superiority in the finish of the first third into goals. Canadian Vause scored three times in 88 seconds. In the 27th minute, the man of the game entered himself once again on the shooters’ list. Peter Schneider (52./PP) was responsible for the final point. The leader of the standings won against the Zagreb bears for the eighth time in a row. In the league it was the fourth home win for the Capitals in a row. They can follow number five already on Saturday, when it goes again at home against Dornbirn. Zagreb lost en suite for the seventh time in a foreign country.

The KAC lost first place due to their second defeat in the last three games. It turned out violent. The Klagenfurt defence, otherwise so strong, conceded eight of their 59 goals in one game in the Czech Republic. The visitors gave a 1:0 lead out of their hands, already after the first third the preliminary decision was made with a 2:4 deficit. Znojmo scored four times within six minutes.

There was also no sense of achievement for the people of Graz, although they were able to make up for a backlog twice in the Volksgarten ice arena. Double scorer Christopher van de Velde advanced to match winner with his second goal in the 34th minute. Then the Styrians pressed extra time, but were unlucky in the end, just seconds after Curtis Hamilton’s strike from the bar.

The Salzburger coached by Greg Poss thus also continued national series after the European sense of achievement. At home, it was the 16th consecutive win against Graz, in the league the most recent five games could be won.

Thanks to four goals in the middle section, the Linz team won in Innsbruck and extended their winning streak to six games. Bolzano, on the other hand, was happy about the end of a negative series. The South Tyroleans celebrated their first victory against Villach after seven defeats in a row. The VSV went off the ice for the seventh time in a row as a loser. Fehervar underpinned his own home strength with a 5-2 win over Dornbirn. The Hungarians have always scored in the last six home games, winning five times.