Release from 03.03.2026

Pre-Playoffs start on Wednesday

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The Pre-Playoffs of the win2day ICE Hockey League get underway on Wednesday. The remaining two quarterfinal spots will be decided in best-of-three series. While the Vienna Capitals face Hydro Fehérvár AV19, the EC iDM Wärmepumpen VSV will take on the Steinbach Black Wings Linz. Game 2 of the series will be played on Friday, with a potential deciding Game 3 scheduled for Sunday. The quarterfinal series will begin on Tuesday, March 10.

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The Vienna Capitals finished the regular season in seventh place and selected tenth-ranked Hydro Fehérvár AV19 as their opponent in the Pre-Playoff pick. The Hungarian side only just secured their place in the postseason. With 34 seconds remaining in their final regular-season game against FTC-Telekom, they were trailing 1–2 — a result that would have seen their local rivals overtake them in the standings. However, Anze Kuralt scored the equalizer to seal Fehérvár’s spot in the Pre-Playoffs. The two teams already met in last season’s Pre-Playoffs, when Fehérvár narrowly won the series 2–1, including a 3–2 victory in the decisive game. This season, however, the Hungarians have won only one of their four meetings with Vienna. Overall, the two teams have faced each other 106 times in league play, with 70 wins for the Capitals and 36 for Fehérvár. Most of those encounters were extremely close, with almost 50 percent decided by just one goal.

Villach faces Linz
The second Pre-Playoff matchup features the eighth-placed EC iDM Wärmepumpen VSV against ninth-ranked Steinbach Black Wings Linz. Only one point separated the two teams in the standings. A tightly contested series is expected, especially since both teams won two games each during the regular season. The historical head-to-head also points to close battles: of the 184 previous meetings, VSV have won 94 games, while the Black Wings claimed 90 victories. In 74 of those matches, a single goal made the difference.

win2day ICE Hockey League:
Tue, 04.03.2026:
19:15: Vienna Capitals – Hydro Fehérvár AV19
Referees: OFNER, PIRAGIC, Puff, Zgonc
Stand in der “best-of-3”-Pre-Playoff-Serie: 0:0

19:15: EC iDM Wärmepumpen VSV – Steinbach Black Wings Linz
Referees: HRONSKY, NIKOLIC M., Bedynek, Jedlicka
Stand in der “best-of-3”-Pre-Playoff-Serie: 0:0

Watch both games live on Sporteurope.tv.