Release from 27.04.2023

Matikainen and EC-KAC go separate ways

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After five seasons together and two championship titles, head coach Petri Matikainen and EC KAC are parting ways, the Klagenfurter announced. The decision was made jointly.

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The EC-KAC and Head Coach Petri Matikainen have made the joint decision to go separate ways from now on after a thorough analysis of the past season. The club and the coach, who has been working in Klagenfurt since the summer of 2018, fixed today, Thursday, the written agreement on an early termination of the employment relationship, which was originally limited until the end of the 2023/24 season.

Petri Matikainen leaves the Austrian record champion as a two-time title winner, both in 2019 and 2021 he led the KAC to championships in the ICE. Under the leadership of the Finn, the EC-KAC lost only two of the total of ten completed playoff series, in the recently ended season, his team was defeated in five games in the semifinals to the eventual title holders EC Salzburg.

The 56-year-old's tenure was the second-longest of any head coach in the history of the traditional Carinthian club: he was at the side of the KAC in a total of 294 league games, 173 of which were won. With a winning percentage of 58.8 percent, Petri Matikainen is the most successful KAC coach in almost two decades; his compatriot Jorma Siitarinen (2003/04) was the last head coach whose engagement in Klagenfurt ended with a higher success rate. The percentage of playoff games won by the KAC in the Matikainen era was even higher - 65.4 percent. The Finn also set a new club record: No coach in KAC history has been on the sidelines in more postseason matches than him (52).

Petri Matikainen: "We came to the joint decision in recent weeks that the club and I should go in different directions in the future. I had five beautiful years in Klagenfurt, outstanding were of course the two championship titles. That of 2019 was a great pleasure, the championship of 2021 was perhaps even a bit more special, because there were such unfamiliar conditions in that season and the cornerstone of success was that we were able to adapt to them quickly and sustainably as a group. Over the course of almost 300 league games, we relied heavily on local players, and young athletes made their breakthrough or at least had a good chance of doing so. In conclusion, I can only say a big thank you - to the EC-KAC organization, the coaches and trainers I had the privilege to work with, the players on our teams over the past five years, the fans of the KAC and the city of Klagenfurt as a whole. It was a good time and we part as friends."