Release from 14.08.2023

Red Bull Hockey Juniors win the Summer Heat Challenge'23

Short text 607 CharactersPlain text

Great success for the Red Bull Hockey Juniors, who won the Summer Heat Challenge'23 in Tampere. In the final, the Young Bulls beat the reigning Finnish U20 champion Tappara Tampere with 4:3. The Steel Wings Linz AG also celebrated a successful start to the preseason, beating Alps Hockey League newcomer HK RST Pellet Celje 3:2. In addition, S.G. Cortina celebrated a 5:3 opening win over the HC Gherdeina valgardena.it in the Trofeo Ladino. Cortina has also strengthened itself once again on the transfer market, while champion HDD SIJ Acroni Jesenice and HC Merano/o Pircher announced contract extensions.

Press release 2318 CharactersPlain text

The Red Bull Hockey Juniors had to play a total of four games in as many days at the Summer Heat Challenge'23 in Tampere. A 1:0 opening win against Lahti Pelicans (U20) was followed by a 0:4 loss against Ilves Hockey (U20) in the second game, before reigning Finnish U20 champions Tappara Tampere was beaten 3:2, putting both teams through to the final. In this, the Young Bulls again kept the upper hand very narrowly with 4:3. The decision by Jakob Weber, who also scored to equalize the score at 3:3, came ten minutes before the end of the game.

Wins for Steel Wings and Cortina
Alps Hockey League newcomer HK RST Pellet Celje played its first test match against the Steel Wings Linz AG in preparation for the premiere season. The Slovenians, who were hit hard by last week's floods, narrowly lost to the Upper Austrians 2:3. In the opening game of the Trofeo Ladino, a tournament in which S.G. Cortina Hafro, HC Gherdeina valgardena.it and SHC Fassa Falcons take part, Cortina beat Val Gardena 5:3 in the opening game. Already on Thursday both teams will face each other again in the Trofeo Ladino, but then in Val Gardena. Cortina also announced the signing of forward Massimo Carozza. The Canadian-born forward already played 80 AHL games (94 points) for the HC Pustertal from 2019 to 2021. After that, Carozza played one season in Great Britain before joining Bordeaux in France.

More AHL teams start preseason
Ten more AHL teams will start their preseason this week. Only the EHC Lustenau will play its first preseason game next week. Among others, there will be direct AHL duels between the EK Die Zeller Eisbären and HDD SIJ Acroni Jesenice, the EC-KAC Future Team and the Steel Wings Linz AG, the HC Meran/o Pircher and the Rittner Buam SkyAlps, as well as the Wipptal Broncos Weihenstephan and the EC Die Adler Stadtwerke Kitzbühel.

>> Preseason dates

Contract extensions in Jesenice and Merano
Reigning champion HDD SIJ Acroni Jesenice has extended with 23-year-old Martin Bohinc. Last season, the forward scored ten points in 28 appearances. At the HC Meran/o Pircher, the contract with homegrown player Daniel Gellon was extended as well. The 22-year-old forward has so far played 71 games in the Alps Hockey League (49 points).