Release from 18.04.2017

Look back to a first successful chapter

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Started as a promising project with 16 teams from Italy (8), Austria (7) and Slovenia (1), Sky Alps Hockey League looks back to an extremely successful debut season 2016-17. After 337 games Rittner Buam were finally crowned first champions.

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"Club's expectations were very different before the start of the season. The league was well organised and very well accepted", finds Dr. Peter Mennel, president of Erste Bank Eishockey Liga, words of praise for the newly-founded league. With Rittner Buam having their championship party, the debut season officially came to an end on Saturday. The team of head coach Riku-Petteri Lehtonen met expectations right from the beginning, having the longest winning-streak with 14 wins in a row, too. The "Buam" also won the final four for the Italian championship and came really close to get the Continental Cup title. For long periods they had an entertaining fight with HC Pustertal, who finished the first part of regular season with 76 pojnts, just one point less than later champions of Ritten. All the more surprising was their quarterfinal exit against Sportivi Ghiaccio Cortina Hafro, the season's biggest surprise at the same time. These teams also played the longest game with Riley Brace winning the playoff opener for Cortina after 109 minutes.
 
Young domestic players get chance
The second favourite for the title needed some time to pick up pace. Migross Supermercati Asiago Hockey had a really bad start but made Master Round of the six best teams after a sensational comeback. Their run just ended in the finals but Anthony Nigro became top scorer of the season, though. The Canadian earned 70 points (26 goals and 44 assists) in 50 games and was voted to the "team of teh season" by fans, too. With Frederic Cloutier and Daniel Sullivan two more Asiago players were nominated as well as Ritten's Christian Borgatello, Dylan Stanley of FBI VEU Feldkirch and HDD SIJ Acroni Jesenice's Eric Pance. The Slovene scored the league's first goal when finding the back of the net on 17th September 2016 in a 8:2 home win against Gherdeina after only 43 seconds. Later in the season he was voted most valuable player (MVP) by journalists and also became leading goalscorer with 32 goals in 31 games. 
 
True to the founding idea, lots of young, domestic players got the chance to play. For some of them the hockey season is not over yet as they play for their national teams at the upcoming world championships. Building on talents was highly appreciated by the fans: Feldkirch had the most spectators (1.264) on average while almost 30.000 fans came to Asiago's arena for the whole season. The live streams were accepted very well, too. Especially the playoff coverages, financed by the league and produced by Asiago.tv, gave proof of the large interest in Sky Alps Hockey League.
 
Peter Schramm (Chairman Sky Alps Hockey League): „Many have thought that the performance gap between the clubs and countries is  much higher. The best eight teams had a tight race with Ritten being the worthy champions because of their squad and environment. Jesenice went well with the league and I think that the Austrian teams will come even closer to the top in the future. The clubs are happy and also the spectators really liked the interesting mode. The league gives young players a chance to play on senior level early. They can prove themselves and show taht they are ready for Erste Bank Eishockey Liga. It's the perfect stage for young players of all three participatin countries. The clubs have to trust in them further on, it's financially good on a long-term basis and it's also better for the league. It makes an impact on the number of spectators, the fans identify with the players".

Tommaso Teofoli (Member Board of Governors): “The Sky Alps Hockey League is a league that has already had some success in sporting in her first year of life. There have been a lot of matches fought at every stage and until the last second. There has also been a good growth of all the athletes who participated, especially the younger ones with a lot of minutes on the ice than in the past. Precisely this was one of the objectives to be achieved. The idea was born of the AHL to enlarge and make more interesting the highest Italian league with other teams of different countries.  The new attractive formula and the different schedule has made the Ahl very interesting. As the first year ever, there are some factors that should be reviewed and discussed again but the project is on track. Of course, now there is to work hard because the next season (September 2017) is already upon us and we must be ready to seize additional challenges in order to improve the product. "