Shootout victory for the KAC | Villach wins again in Salzburg

In a thrilling top game, the league leaders EC-KAC narrowly won 4:3/SO against the Moser Medical Graz99ers. However, the KAC were denied the early playoff qualification as Villach won in Salzburg at the same time. Mathias From put the home side ahead after just 55 seconds. Klagenfurt were comfortably 3:0 ahead after 15 minutes before Paul Huber reduced the deficit to 1:3 for Graz. The 24-year-old native of Graz would end up scoring all three goals for the Styrians. From the second period onwards, the visitors were slightly the team that set the tone and scored the 2:3 in the 33rd minute. Things then got really exciting in the final minutes of regulation time: Graz took the goalkeeper off the ice and Paul Huber made his hat-trick perfect, with 46 seconds remaining. It was the forward's first hat-trick in the win2day ICE Hockey League. The game finally went to a shootout, in which only Daniel Obersteiner on the KAC side was able to convert his penalty. It was the third win in a row for the league leaders. They are now three points ahead of their closest rivals Bolzano. Graz remain in fifth place, just two points ahead of seventh-placed Villach. It was the first defeat for the 99ers after three wins in a row.

Villach wins again in Salzburg
The second duel of the season between EC Red Bull Salzburg and EC iDM Wärmepumpen VSV in the Eisarena Salzburg also ended 3:2 in favor of the guests from Villach. Guus van Nes was the player of the game with a hat-trick. The 27-year-old scored in the third minute to make it 1:0 and in the eighth minute van Nes increased the lead to 2:0. The Red Bulls struggled at the start and it took until the 27th minute for Peter Schneider to score in the powerplay to make it 1:2. But van Nes scored just a few minutes later to make it 3:1 in the powerplay. It was the Dutchman's third hat-trick in the win2day ICE Hockey League. He scored the other two hat-tricks for the Pioneers Vorarlberg. Just six seconds after the 1:3, Salzburg were able to respond and reduce the deficit to 2:3 through Benjamin Nissner. At this point, 32 minutes had been played. In the end, VSV saved the narrow lead. The Red Bulls hit the post shortly before the end, but the fourth-placed team in the table was denied an equalizer. It was VSV's fourth win in a row and a hugely important one in the battle for the top six. They are currently tied on points with the sixth-placed Black Wings in seventh place.

Bolzano climbs to second place in the table
HCB Südtirol Alperia has reduced the gap to leaders Klagenfurt to just three points and moved past Fehérvár in the table. Bolzano is now in second place. On Friday, the “Foxes” won 4:1 against the spusu Vienna Capitals. For the HCB, it was one of only two wins from the last five games, while the Capitals suffered their first defeat after two recent victories. The tenth-placed Capitals are now just six points ahead of the Pioneers Vorarlberg in eleventh place in the table. Michele Marchetti put Bolzano ahead after just 70 seconds. Shortly before the end of the first period, Felix Koschek celebrated a special moment. The 19-year-old scored his first goal in his 17th game for the Vienna Capitals. The score remained 1:1 until the 27th minute, when Adam Helewka made it 2:1 for the South Tyroleans with a great individual move. Two minutes before the end of the third period, Anthony Salinitri increased the lead to 3:1 in the powerplay. Little happened in the final period until 20 seconds before the end when Bolzano scored an empty-netter to make the final score.

Pioneers maintain chance of top 10
The Pioneers Vorarlberg celebrated an enormously important 4:1 away win at HC Pustertal. With this success, the eleventh-placed Pioneers reduced the gap to tenth place to just six points and are now nine points behind the ninth-placed “Wolves” from Bruneck. The Pioneers were already 3:0 up after the first period and Oskar Maier made it 4:0 in the 36th minute with his second goal of the evening. The home side's only goal came eight minutes before the end of the game in the powerplay. It was the third defeat in a row for Pustertal. In the last two games, however, they at least made it into overtime, while the Pioneers celebrated their first success after two defeats.

In addition, eighth-placed Olimpija Ljubljana won against bottom-placed HC TIWAG Innsbruck 4:0. In an uneventful game, it took until the 35th minute before Rok Kapel put the visitors ahead. They added two more goals in the following minutes of the middle period. The visitors finally ensured the final score in the 47th minute. It was Olimpija's second win in a row and their second success against Innsbruck this season.

win2day ICE Hockey League:
Fr, 31.01.2025:
EC-KAC – Moser Medical Graz99ers 4:3/SO (3:1, 0:1, 0:1, 0:0)
Referees: HUBER, ZRNIC, Bärnthaler, Zgonc | Spectators: 4.375
Goals KAC: 1:0 From M. (1.), 2:0 Petersen N. (13.), 3:0 Hundertpfund T. (16.), 4:3/SO Obersteiner D. (65./PS)
Goals G99: 3:1 Huber P. (18.), 3:2 Huber P. (33.), 3:3 Huber P. (60.)

EC Red Bull Salzburg – EC iDM Wärmepumpen VSV 2:3 (0:2, 2:1, 0:0)
Referees: HRONSKY, PIRAGIC, Jedlicka, Konc | Spectators: 3.152
Goals RBS: 1:2 Schneider P. (27./PP1), 2:3 Nissner B. (32.)
Goals VSV: 0:1 van Nes G. (3.), 0:2 van Nes G. (8.), 1:3 van Nes G. (32./PP1)

HC TIWAG Innsbruck – Olimpija Ljubljana 0:4 (0:0, 0:3, 0:1)
Referees: OFNER, RIVIS, Fleischmann, Nothegger | Spectators: 1.500
Goals OLL: 0:1 Kapel R. (35.), 0:2 Mehle Z. (37.), 0:3 Bonino N. (38.), 0:4 Ege W. (47.)

HCB Südtirol Alperia – spusu Vienna Capitals 4:1 (1:1, 2:0, 1:0)
Referees: M. NIKOLIC, STERNAT, Pardatscher, Rigoni | Spectators: 3.720
Goals HCB: 1:0 Marchetti M. (2.), 2:1 Helewka A. (27.), 3:1 Salinitri A. (38./PP1), 4:1 Christoffer B. (60./EN)
Goal VIC: 1:1 Koschek F. (18.)

HC Pustertal – Pioneers Vorarlberg 1:4 (0:3, 0:1, 1:0)
Referees: E. SEEWALD, SMETANA, Mantovani, Riecken | Spectators: 2.746
Goal HCP: 1:4 Lacroix C. (52./PP1)
Goals PIV: 0:1 Maier O. (8.), 0:2 Lundegard J. (14.), 0:3 Woger D. (20.), 0:4 Maier O. (36.)