Release from 21.04.2023

Jesenice is AHL champion for the first time

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The 2022/23 Alps Hockey League season came to an end in a dramatic way. HDD SIJ Acroni Jesenice crowned themselves AHL champions for the first time on Thursday night with a 4:3 win after overtime at S.G. Cortina Hafro. With the only away win in this finals, the Slovenians prevailed 4:2 in the "best-of-7" series. Until 42 seconds before the end of the third period, Jesenice still led comfortably 3:1, before Diego Cuglietta forced an overtime with a double strike for Cortina. In this, however, Ziga Urukalo finally redeemed Jesenice in the 97th minute in the third longest AHL game in history. For Italian champion Cortina, the vice-championship title is also the greatest success in the AHL.

In the coming season, Jesenice will start the mission to defend the title, because a late entry for the 23/24 season was approved on Thursday.

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HDD SIJ Acroni Jesenice became the second Slovenian team to capture the Alps Hockey League championship title after HK SZ Olimpija Ljubljana (2018/19 and 2020/21). The dominator of the 2022/23 Regular Season did not lose a single home game in the playoffs and crowned itself champion with its first away win in the finals in Cortina.

Just seconds into the sixth final, Tommaso Traversa had the first big chance for Cortina, but couldn't score in front of an open goal. Just a few minutes later, however, it worked out with the opening goal for Traversa and the hosts. With his eighth playoff goal, the Cortina goaltender put the score at 1:0 in the fourth minute. The answer came in person of Jasa Jenko in the 17th minute, who equalized with a worth seeing solo effort.

In the second period, Jesenice scored with the first power play of the game: Rudolfs Polcs gave the guests the lead for the first time in the 27th minute. After that, Jesenice immediately increased to 3:1 thanks to an onetimer from Ozbej Rep.

The Slovenians did not let anything happen in the third period before the last minute began and Diego Cuglietta made the Stadio Olimpico shake. The 27-year-old first reduced the deficit to 2:3 with 42 seconds remaining, before the forward made the seemingly impossible possible with ten seconds remaining and scored the 3:3 equalizer. For the native Canadian, it was the first goals in the finals. In the following endless overtime, neither team could score the decision in the first 20 minutes. Finally, it took until the 97th minute before Ziga Urukalo scored the championship-winning goal after an assist from Erik Svetina to send Jesenice to its first title in the multinational league. Overall, it was the third longest game in the Alps Hockey League history.

Alps Hockey League| 6th final:
Do, 20.04.2023, 20:30 Uhr: S.G. Cortina Hafro – HDD SIJ Acroni Jesenice 3:4/OT (1:1, 0:2, 2:0, 0:1)
Referees: HOLZER, SCHAUER, De Zordo, Eisl. | Spectators: 1002
Final standings in der „best-of-7" series: 2:4
Goals SGC: 1:0 Traversa T. (4. Sanna M. – Alvera T.), 2:3 Cuglietta D. (60. Lacedelli R. – Saha M.), 3:3 Cuglietta D. (60. Saha M. – Traversa T.)
Goals JES: 1:1 Jenko J. (17. Lesnicar T. – Blomberg N.), 1:2 Polcs R. (27./PP1 Svetina E. – Logar M.), 1:3 Rep O. (29. Bohinc M.), 3:4 Urukalo Z. (97./OT Svetina E.)