Asiago, Cortina and Ritten already in the semifinal!

Wacey Rabbit returned to play for home team.  Maksims Sirokovs and Viktor Schweitzer, both of HC Pustertal, and Nicola Fontanive (Cortina) were absent for suspensions. During the first period the HC Pustertal immediately showed to put pressure against Cortina but the guests defended well with discipline. Marco De Filippo, the netminder of guest, had to face some personal initiative by Armin Helfer and Wacey Rabbit, while, as usual, Zach Torquato made fast actions for the opponent. In the final part of the first half the hosts tried to press the accelerator but they didn’t succeed. The first period finished without goals. During the second period Cortina tried to get out of their own defensive third most frequently, going close to scoring with a powerful shot. The guests didn’t capitalize the first phase of superiority at the disposal of the game. Max Oberrauch was very dangerous for the Wolves in penalty killing action. After the middle, there was the first crucial moment of the game: Thomas Erlacher and Armin Helfer were in the penalty bench and the guests made the first goal with a powerful and accurate shot by Francesco De Biasio. Then the last part of period was intensive and very fought. The Wolves played in 2-man advantage as they scored the tie with Corey Pritz (35’). But Cortina reacted very quickly as they scored the new advantage with Jordan Ciccarello on perfect assist of Patrick Rizzo. Cortina closed the period on the lead (2:1). It were little changes in the 3th period, especially the attitude of the two teams on the ice: Cortina played in defense but the Wolves seemed to unable to change the rythm. Omicioli’s team played simple as they focused in administering the puck in different areas of the rink, while the yellow black team was often inconclusive. Minutes after the minutes the Pustertal become nervous and imprecise: Erlacher, Oberrauch and Rabbit brought some traffic in the front of the net of De Filippo but they didn’t succeed. The last few minutes of the period, the HC Pustertal decided to play with an extra attacker after the Ciccarello’s penalty. But in the end, it was all useless, because the Cortina put discipline and attention and then they resolved the game and the series with the empty net goal of Riley Braces who scored the 3:1. Cortina won the quarterfinal for 3:0 in the series as they earned a ticket for the semifinals where will meet the Ritten. The Wolves were out of playoff: a big surprise after a season in high position but the but the expectations of the playoffs were dashed.

 

The first part of the period was balanced. The Ritten played on offense but didn’t find much space in front of Daniel Morandell’s net. In the first powerplay for the Renon there was a dangerous counterattack of Wild Geese. When the teams returned to play in equal strenght there was the first goal of the match. The Rittner Buam went ahead with a shot of Simon Kostner but the deflection of a visitors player was obvious. Then after the middle the home team grew to the distance: the Wild Geese made some mistakes as the Ritten played with more confidence. But the defense of the guests didn’t suffer more goals until the end of the first half. In the second period the Ritten played a game always attack with pace. The Neumarkt felt tired the two previous games of quarter and merely defend his goalkeeper. The Rittner Buam doubled on a deflection of Janis Sprukts in the slot after a shot from the blue after 36 minutes of play. In the third time the game was balanced in the first minutes: Neumarkt tried to score the first goal. But they didn’t succeed. Then was Ritten in totally controll of the game. In the last minutes of the match was the last goal of the evening: Tommaso Traversa realized the 3:0 that was also the final result. The Rittner Buam earned the ticket to the semi-finals with the the victory for 3:0 in the series against a good Neumarkt for what they has done and to demonstrate against a stronger opponent.

 

Colin Long was absent for home team. During the first period the teams played very careful. It didn’t seem a playoff game for the first 10 minutes. The game was fast as the two teams didn’t want to create mistakes. Minutes after minutes the games took off and it started to register some real actions. The Asiago scored the first goal with a perfect diagonal of Mike Sullivan. Then the game got tougher. Two players of Asiago were in penalty bench: the Feldkirch equalized in 2-man advantage with the shot of Martin Mairitsch in the wide-open net and after a nice pass by Dylan Stanley. The last part of the time was very exciting but the first period finished in tie (1:1). During the second period the Asiago started well as they scored in double powerplay. Michele Marchetti found the right line with a diagonal shot from middle distance after 3 minutes of play. The second half was much more fun. The Feldkirch played with intensity but Frederic Cloutier was ready to save. The other goalkeeper, Alex Caffi, was also in good evening but couldn’t do during the third goals of the hosts. Davide Dal Sasso received the puck in the front of the net by Anthony Nigro and then he made an important goal (32 '). The game was hard fought but the Asiago didn’t find other goals. The Feldkirch, however, made no mistake at the end of time as they scored the 2:3 with Diethard Winzig. During the third-time Asiago managed the game, but was unable to exploit several occasions on the sticks of the its forwards. Caffi was the protagonist of the third time with a lot of saves. During the final minutes coach Lampert called time-out for Feldkirch for organizing the attack as he removed his own goalkeeper from the net. The Austrians tried to find the tie but the Asiago defended well and even managed to score the fourth goal with Giulio Scandella. The Asiago won 4:2 as they earned the ticket for the semifinals but don’t know the opposite because the quarterfinals between Jesenice and Lustenau go on.

 

In a full hall of Podmežakla, with over 3.500 visitors, the home team was attacking for their third win in the series against Lustenau. The first minutes completely belong to Jesenice, tjat also quickly took advantage of a  power play after the shot by Nejc Berlisk. By the end of the first part the lead of Jesenice may have been even higher, as they had created several good chances, while the guests rarely attacked. At the beginning of the second part of the match both team played with four players and Nate DiCasmirro quickly added the 2:0. Even in the following minutes the Red Steelers were dangerous, but slowly the mistakes began to happen in home team. At that point also Jesenice’s goalkeeper had considerable opportunities for proving himself, for example when Maximilian Wilfan tried a penalty shot.  In the last third Jesenice controlled the opponents until the fault for exclusion. Marco Zorec lowered the outcome, two and a half minutes later Stefan Wiedmaier equalized the result. Thomas Auer then very rough encountered to the Head of Luka Kraigher, which had to be hospitalized. For Auer the match was finished. The home team had 5 minutes of power play, but did not use the opportunity. The penalty was followed by 2,2 seconds before the end, when Philipp Winzig took care for the turnaround and victory of Lustenau. Lustenau was saved from the lost position and kept the series open.

 

SKY Alps Hockey League, 3. Quarterfinal (best of five):
Wed, 08.03.2017, 20:00: Rittner Buam - HC Neumarkt Riwega 3:0 (1:0/1:0/1:0)
Referees: LAZZERI, WIDMANN, Bärnthaler, M. Cristeli
Goals Rittner Buam: 1:0 S.Kostner (6./Borgatello-V.Ahlström); 2:0 Sprukts (36./Alber-Frei); 3:0 Traversa (56./PP1/Sprukts); 
Final result Best-of-5-Series: 3:0.
Wed, 08.03.2017: HC Pustertal Wolves - S.G. Cortina Hafro 1:3 (0:0/1:2/0:1)
Referees: BULOVEC, MOSCHEN, Ch. Cristeli, Pagon
Goals HC Pustertal: 1:1 Pritz (35./PP2/Rabbit-Bona); 
Goals Cortina: 0:1 De Biasio (32./PP2/Burton-Torquato); 1:2 Ciccarello (37./Adami-Rizzo); 1:3 Brace (59./EN/SH1); 
Final results Best-of-5 Series: 0:3
Wed, 08.03.2017: HDD SIJ Acroni Jesenice – EHC Alge Elastic Lustenau 2:3 (1:0,1:0,0:3)
Referees: STERNAT, LESNJAK; spectators: 3.500
Goals JES: Berlisk (4./pp – Manfreda, Jeklic), DiCasmirro (21. – Oraze, Pance)
Goals EHC:  Zorec (48./pp – Vala, Auer), Wiedmaier (51. – Gricinskis, Winzig), Winzig (60.  – Gricinskis, Wilfan)
Standing Best-of-five-Series, JES – EHC: 2:1
Wed, 08.03.2017: Migross Supermercati Asiago Hockey - FBI VEU Feldkirch 4:2 (1:1; 2:1; 1:0)
Goals Asiago: 1:0 M.Sullivan (9./Stevan.Lutz); 2:1 S.Marchetti (23./PP2/Kolanos-Nigro); 3:1 Dal Sasso (32./Nigro-Stevan); 4:2 Scandella (59./EN/Lutz-Casetti); 
Goals Feldkirch: 1:1 Mairitsch (16./PP2/Birnstill-Stanley); 3:2 Winzig (39./Stanley-Birnstill);
Referees: RUETZ, VIRTA, Giacomozzi, Rinker
Final result Best-of-5 Serie: 3:0
Picture: Drago Cvetanovič