Release from 16.03.2023

Final race to Young Star of the season 22-23 is on

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The race to Young Star of the season 22-23 is on, with one player each of EC Red Bull Salzburg, Hydro Fehérvár AV19, EC-KAC, HK SZ Olimpija and Steinbach Black Wings Linz. Voting closes Tuesday night. 

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Five players are up for election for the Young Star of the season 22-23 award. From the previous monthly winners, fans, PULS24 experts and journalists will now vote for the annual winner. Their votes count for one third each, in case of a tie the better ranking from the fan voting will decide the winner of the year.

The following five players are available for election.

Miha Bericic (HK SZ Olimpija) | Winner September/October
Miha Bericic, born in Ljubljana and 18 years old, won the first monthly election. The forward played for HK Slavija Junior until the beginning of the current win2day ICE Hockey League season, where he went through his entire hockey education. Since last summer, the current Slovenian U20 international has been part of HK SZ Olimpija and he played 46 games (4G|6A) with the "Dragons" this season. In the first two months, the forward recorded three goals and three assists.

Patrick Söllinger (Steinbach Black Wings Linz) | Winner November
Patrick Söllinger, he won the election in November, was the youngest player among the nominees in November at the age of 18. The defender received his complete hockey education in Linz: Via the junior team of the Steinbach Black Wings Linz and later the Upper Austrian Hockey Academy, Söllinger received his first minutes of action in the Alps Hockey League (30 games) in the past season and also his first two appearances in the win2day ICE Hockey League. This year, the defender initially shuttled between the farm team and the first team before playing the majority of Linz's ICE games starting in November. Söllinger then played with the Austrian national team at the U20 World Championship in Canada. In total, the defender has played 22 ICE games so far.

Dominik Horvath (Hydro Fehérvár AV19) | Winner December
With Dominik Horváth, a goalkeeper has also been nominated for the Young Star annual selection this season. After consistently good outings at the start of the season, the 22-year-old goalkeeper received three starts at the beginning of December. He kept a clean sheet in his first two starts and recorded two shutouts in a row. The Hungarian international, who was born in Székesfehérvár and went through all of the youth stages at the Hungarian ICE club, received eleven season appearances and finished with a save percentage of 90.7%.

Fabian Hochegger (EC-KAC) | Winner January
Fabian Hochegger, winner of the January selection, was trained at EC-KAC and, except for two engagements in the Canadian QMJHL for Drummondville Voltigeurs, always played for the "Rotjacken". Last season Hochegger made his debut in the win2day ICE Hockey League, playing 43 games (2G|4A). In the running campaign, the forward, who now plays for the Austrian national team, showed a further increase in performance. In January, Hochegger was one of the offensive key players for EC-KAC. After 49 games this season, he stands at eleven goals and eight assists.

Lucas Thaler (EC Red Bull Salzburg) | Winner February
Things are going well for Lucas Thaler, who qualified for the annual election as the last monthly winner: he played six games in February, collecting one goal and three assists. And most recently in the completed quarterfinal series against Hydro Fehérvár AV19 he added to his tally, and already holds at two postseason goals. The Villach native has thus already collected twelve goals for the season and has already proven his great quality in the men's national team this season.

>> VOTING <<

Procedure of the election
First, five monthly winners will be determined. For this purpose, four players per month are nominated to take part in the voting. Due to less gamedays in September 2022, the first two months have been combined into one election. The five monthly winners will then compete in the 2023 playoffs for the title of "Young Star of the 2022/23 season".

The election consists of three components: in addition to the fan voting on the league homepage, the PULS24 experts, as well as journalists vote. If two or more players receive the same number of votes, they will be ranked according to the result of the fan vote.

Winner September/October | Miha Bericic (HK SZ Olimpija)
Winner November | Patrick Söllinger (Steinbach Black Wings Linz)
Winner December | Dominik Horvath (Hydro Fehérvár AV19)
Winner January | Fabian Hochegger (EC-KAC)
Winner February | Lucas Thaler (EC Red Bull Salzburg)