Release from 31.01.2026

Narrow home wins for Graz and Vienna on Saturday

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Both Saturday games in the win2day ICE Hockey League ended with narrow home victories. The Moser Medical Graz99ers defeated HC TIWAG Innsbruck 4:3, cutting the gap to league leaders EC-KAC to just one point. Meanwhile, the Vienna Capitals celebrated a 1:0 win over the Pioneers Vorarlberg, giving the seventh-placed Capitals an eleven-point cushion over the eleventh placed Budapest.

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The Moser Medical Graz99ers secured a 4:3 home victory over HC TIWAG Innsbruck and moved within one point of table leaders EC-KAC. It was the third win of the week for the Styrians, while bottom-placed Innsbruck suffered their sixth consecutive defeat. In front of 4,126 fans in the sold-out Merkur Eisarena, the home side had to battle hard until the final whistle and initially found themselves trailing after Troy Lajeunesse gave the visitors a 1:0 lead in the fifth minute. However, Graz responded immediately: just 48 seconds later, Paul Huber equalized on the power play, and in the 15th minute the hosts turned the game around completely when 21-year-old Jakob Lippitsch scored his first-ever goal in the win2day ICE Hockey League in his 27th appearance. Both goals were assisted by Lukas Haudum. In the middle period, Manuel Ganahl extended Graz’s lead to 3:1 (30th minute). The visitors remained competitive and pulled back to 2:3 on the power play through Stefan Klassek in the 35th minute. In the 50th minute, Marcus Vela restored Graz’s two-goal advantage, again on the power play. Innsbruck refused to give up and scored another power-play goal through Marcel Witting with one and a half minutes remaining to make it 3:4. However, the comeback attempt came too late, and Graz secured their second home win against the Sharks this season. The two previous meetings in Innsbruck had both gone in favor of the Tyroleans.

Capitals earn shutout home win
Carter Souch scored the game-winning goal in the Vienna Capitals’ narrow 1:0 home victory over the Pioneers Vorarlberg. In front of more than 6,000 fans, the 24-year-old Canadian found the net just 15 seconds before the end of the second period following a brilliant backhand assist from Zane Franklin. With this win, the seventh-placed Capitals took an important step toward Pre-Playoff qualification and now hold an eleven-point lead over eleventh-placed Budapest. Vienna registered a total of 30 shots on goal, while the Pioneers directed 21 shots at Sebastian Wraneschitz but were unable to beat him. For the 23-year-old goaltender, it was his second consecutive shutout at home; he had also kept Bolzano scoreless on January 25. It marked the Capitals’ fifth win in their last six games, while the twelfth-placed Pioneers suffered their third straight defeat.

win2day ICE Hockey League:
Sat, 31.01.2026:
Vienna Capitals – Pioneers Vorarlberg 1:0 (0:0, 1:0, 0:0)
Referees: NIKOLIC K., SIEGEL, Konc, Riecken
Goal VIC: Souch C. (40.)

Moser Medical Graz99ers – HC TIWAG Innsbruck 4:3 (2:1, 1:1, 1:1)
Referees: GROZNIK, OFNER, Seewald, Wimmler
Goals G99: 1:1 Huber P. (5./PP1), 2:1 Lippitsch J. (15.), 3:1 Ganahl M. (30.), 4:2 Vela M. (50./PP1)
Goals HCI: 0:1 Lajeunesse T. (5.), 3:2 Klassek S. (35./PP1), 4:3 Witting M. (59./PP1)