Release from 20.03.2023

Game-7: Regular-Season-Winner against Deciding-Game-Specialist

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Already in the quarterfinals of the win2day ICE Hockey League there will be an all-decisive Game-7, in which the regular season winner - HCB Südtirol Alperia was allowed to choose its quarterfinal opponent first - is involved. The opponents are the Steinbach Black Wings Linz, who already this season - but also repeatedly in the past - proved that deciding games belong to their special discipline.

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Tue, 21.03.2023, 19:30: HCB Südtirol Alperia - Steinbach Black Wings Linz
Referees: OFNER, STERNAT, Nothegger, Seewald, | >> PULS 24 <<
Standings in the "best-of-7" series: 3:3

37 wins and only eleven losses was the impressive record of HCB Südtirol Alperia in the Regular Season. In the last five games, however, the South Tyroleans had to admit defeat to the Steinbach Black Wings Linz three times. Only once before this season the Foxes had a negative record in five consecutive games (November 1- November 19, 2022). Now the decisive seventh game of the "best-of-seven" quarterfinal series will take place on Tuesday in Bolzano. Since the creation of the pick, the top-seeded team - the team that picks its quarterfinal opponent first - has never had to end the season in the quarterfinals.

Linz faces fourth elimination game this season
The Upper Austrians have already proven several times this season that they can handle pressure. Against the Moser Medical Graz99ers, the Black Wings won two "win-or-go-home games." Game six in the quarterfinal series on Sunday against HCB could also have been their last game of the season. There, too, the seventh-place team after the Regular Season battled their way to victory, with Martin Schumnig providing a "Game 7" in the ninth minute of overtime.

Black Wings won six of six "deciders" in their club history
But a look at the past also reveals that the Upper Austrians feel comfortable in decider games. The Black Wings are the only team to have never lost a series (best-of-seven or best-of-five) that went the full distance. In total, the Upper Austrians have played six deciding games since the league was founded (excluding the pre-playoffs in the current season) - four of them in the "best-of-seven" format. On one occasion, HCB Südtirol Alperia and Steinbach Black Wings Linz faced each other in a seventh game. On March 20, 2015 - exactly eight years ago - the Linz team celebrated a 4:3 home win to advance to the semifinals. This game was also the only deciding game in which HCB Südtirol Alperia lost out.




Bolzano always over the full distance to the championship title
Both of the South Tyrolean championship titles were won in a "decider". In 2014, Žiga Pance scored in the 12th minute of overtime in the decisive fifth game of the "best-of-five" series against Salzburg to clinch the title in the Foxes' premiere season. In 2018 - also in the final against Salzburg - it went the full distance in a "best-of-seven" series. After taking a 3-0 lead in the decider, the Foxes managed to hold on for a 3-2 win and were crowned champions for the second time.