Home wins for Cortina, Ritten and Jesenice

The 485 fans in Cortina witnessed a real thriller at the start of the S.G. Cortina Hafro vs. EHC Lustenau series, in which the home side finally prevailed 5:4 after overtime. In a racy game, Cortina was already in the lead 2:0 after 12 minutes of play. Lustenau got better into the game in the second period and reduced the score to 1:2 in the 31st minute through Lucas Haberl, before Kevin Puschnik scored just three minutes later to equalize the score. Only twelve seconds were played in the third period when the Vorarlberg team took the lead for the first time through a goal by Chris D'Alvise. Mads Larsen even increased the lead to 4:2 in the 53rd minute. This time the home side had to answer and they did. First Luca Barnabo reduced the lead to 3:4 in the 55th minute. 21 seconds before the end of the game it was finally Fancesco Adami who made the fans go wild. In the following overtime, Cortina was able to take the momentum with them and fix the home victory with a goal by Tommaso Traversa after just under five minutes.

Narrow opening victory for Ritten
The Ritten Buam SkyAlps prevailed 3:0 against Playoff newcomer EC Die Adler Stadtwerke Kitzbühel in their quarterfinal opener. Until six minutes before the end of the game, however, the score was only 1:0 from the home side's point of view. After a scoreless first period, Philipp Pechlaner scored in the 24th minute to give the AHL premiere champions the lead. The 1:0 lead lasted until the 55th minute before Adam Giacomuzzi increased to 2:0. For the 20-year-old it was the second playoff goal of his career. The forward had already scored once in 2019. Finally, Markus Spinell provided the final goal 47 seconds before the end of the game. Hayden Hawkey in the goal of the Buam could save all 33 shots on his goal and thus celebrate his third shutout of the season.

Jesenice with sovereign opening victory
Last year's finalist HDD SIJ Acroni Jesenic had no problems against the Wipptal Broncos Weihenstephan. The Slovenians won clearly against the South Tyroleans with 4:2. After 44 minutes they were already leading 4:0, before the guests from Sterzing came close with a double strike within 117 seconds to make it 2:4. The player of the game was Gasper Sersen with two goals. The 23-year-old scored his sixth and seventh goals of the season and his second brace of the season. The other goal scorer for Jesenice were Luka Scap and Eric Pance.

Alps Hockey League | 07.03.2023 | 1st quarterfinals:
HDD SIJ Acroni Jesenice - Wipptal Broncos Weihenstephan 4:2 (2:0, 1:0, 1:2)
Standings in the „best-of-7“ series: 1:0
Referees: LAZZERI, REZEK, Bergant, Fleischmann | Spectators: 650
Goals JES: 1:0 Sersen G. (17. Svetina E. – Jezovsek Z.), 2:0 Scap L. (19. Jenko J. – Lesnicar T.), 3:0 Sersen G. (21. Svetina E.), 4:0 Pance E. (44. Polcs R. – Larinmaa J.)
Goals WSV: 4:1 Berger S. (48. Eisendle P. – Zecchetto A.), 4:2 Pohlin R. (50. Berger S.)

Rittner Buam SkyAlps - EC Die Adler Stadtwerke Kitzbühel 3:0 (0:0, 1:0, 2:0)
Standings in the „best-of-7“ series: 1:0
Referees: HOLZER, PINIE, Cristeli, Eisl | Spectators: 324
Goals RIT: 1:0 Pechlaner P. (24. Fink K. – Hofer A.), 2:0 Giacomuzzi A. (55. Quinz S. – Hofer A.), 3:0 Spinell M. (60. Kostner J. – Mäkelä A.)

S.G. Cortina Hafro - EHC Lustenau 5:4/OT (2:0, 0:2, 2:2)
Standings in the „best-of-7“ series: 1:0
Referees: MOSCHEN, RUETZ, De Zordo, J. Seewald | Spectators: 485
Goals SGC: 1:0 Saha M. (9. Cuglietta D.), 2:0 Cuglietta D. (12. Saha M. – Lacedelli R.), 3:4 Barnabo´ L. (55. Larcher E. – Cuglietta D.), 4:4 Adami F. (60. Barnabo´ L. – Seed J.), 5:4 Traversa T. (65./OT Parini G.)
Goals EHC: 2:1 Haberl L. (31. Puschnik K. – Krammer A.), 2:2 Puschnik K. (35. Ratz P.), 2:3 D´Alvise C. (41. Wilfan M. – Larsen M.), 2:4 Larsen M. (53./PP1 Koczera P. – Wilfan M.)