Some surprise wins on Thursday

EC-KAC II - Rittner Buam 4:3
The Rittner Buam were without six players in their road game against the EC-KAC II, who played their fourth match within eight days. The match started as desired for the hosts, Samuel Witting (4th) and Valentin Hammerle (5th) quickly put the score at 2:0. Shortly afterwards, Simon Kostner scored his 12th goal of the season to pull one back. But before the first intermission, Rok Kapel restored the two-goal lead (14th). In the middle frame, the guests came back to within one goal when Manuel Öhler reduced the score. However, it was Samuel Witting who scored his second goal of the evening after half an hour to make it 4:2 for the hosts. The final period was marked by a storming run by the Rittner Buam. When Markus Spinell reduced the score to 3:4 in the 53rd minute, the Heiskanen team had some hope. But the Carinthians defended well and earned their second win in their ninth duel against the first AHL champion. While Klagenfurt improved to 14th place, Ritten is still in tenth place.

Red Bull Hockey Juniors - HC Pustertal 3:2
Right from the start, a racy duel on eye level developed, in which the guests had more of the game in the first period - but it remained 0-0. In the middle period, the Juniors took a 1-0 lead through 18-year-old Nikolaus Heigl on the power play. However, the guests equalised through Brett Perlini only 13 seconds later. So it went into the second intermission with a draw. After 18-year-old Vladislav Polegoshko (46th) scored to make it 2-1, Pustertal equalised again through Daniel Glira (53rd). Shortly before the end, the Juniors forced HCP to make a mistake in the build-up. Klaus Heigl intercepted a pass, left the defender and goalkeeper standing and then found the free man. The free man was Polegoshko, who scored his second goal and slotted it into the empty net to score the game-winner. While Salzburg improved to fourth place with their third win in a row, the second-placed team from Bruneck failed to make the leap to the top of the table.

EHC Lustenau - SHC Fassa Falcons 1:3
Lustenau initially set the tone in the home game against Fassa and was rewarded in the seventh minute with a goal by Martin Grabher-Meier. But more and more Fassa was able to adapt to the game of Lustenau and had some dangerous chances themselves. In the middle period Daniel Tedesco (25th) scored the deserved equaliser. Only three minutes later, Fabrizio Pace beat EHC goalkeeper Lukas Rheis for the second time this evening. With this narrow lead, the visitors went into the second intermission. Fassa started the final period with a power play and Martin Castlunger scored the decisive goal to make it 1:3. Lustenau didn't have any more big chances until the final minutes when the home side put the visitors under pressure. But the Italians defended their lead very cleverly and thus came to a not undeserved away victory. It was only Fassa's second win in nine matches against the lions. The result had no effect on the table position of the two teams (Lustenau 6, Fassa 13).

VEU Feldkirch - Wipptal Broncos Weihenstephan 2:7
The signs for the duel between VEU Feldkirch and Wipptal Broncos Weihenstephan were very different. While VEU remained winless in their last three AHL games as well as in the semi-finals of the Austrian AHL Championship, the Broncos won three of their last five. This trend was also confirmed on Thursday. The guests from Sterzing scored the only goal in the first period through Tobias Kofler. After the restart, Trevor Gooch and Paul Eisendle scored twice within 64 seconds to increase the lead to 0:3, Matthias Mantinger even added a fourth goal. The Broncos scored a brace again in the final period to make it 0:6, and although VEU were able to make an offensive impact, it was a clear away win. However, the 7:2 was not the highest victory in the duel of the two teams, Sterzing even won 10:2 on 28th September 2019. Today's result had no impact on the table position of the two teams (Feldkirch 8, Sterzing 11).

HDD SIJ Acroni Jesenice - EC Die Adler Stadtwerke Kitzbühel 5:1
With eight wins in a row, Jesenice welcomed the team from Kitzbühel, who recently won against HC Pustertal after twelve defeats in a row. After an even start, the home side proved to be ice-cold on powerplay. First Zan Jezovsek scored in a 5-on-3 to take the lead, and then Blaz Tomazevic increased the lead with one man more on the ice. In the middle period, Jaka Sodja also put his name to the scoring charts. When Andrej Hebar scored another powerplay goal to make it 4-0, the decision was made. Jezovsek added his second goal in the final period to make it 5-0. Shortly before the end, Robin Gartner at least prevented a shutout of Jesenice goalie Zan Us, who saved 22 of 23 shots. During a fight between Glavic and Eder, the emotions were ran high, but the result remained unchanged. With their ninth win in a row, the third-placed Steelers set a new season record. Kitzbühel slipped to second last place with their third defeat in a row against the Slovenians.

HC Gherdeina valgardena.it - EC Bregenzerwald 2:1
The first period in Wolkenstein was fast, but also very scattered and remained goalless. The second period looked a bit more spectacular and both goalies had more work to do. In the 30th minute, Julian Metzler broke the spell on power play to give the visitors the lead. ECB goalkeeper Karlo Skec kept a clean sheet even after 40 minutes and thus the narrow lead. The home side pressed hard for the equaliser after the restart. And when Lipsbergs was in the penalty box, Michael Sullmann made it 1-1 in the 56th minute. The Vorarlbergers threw everything they had into the game in order to still get three points and ran into a counterattack with just under two minutes to go. Matt Wilkins was on the breakaway and decided the game in favour of the "Furie". The result had no effect on the standings of the two teams (Gröden 12, Bregenzerwald 9).

Alps Hockey League:
EC-KAC II – Rittner Buam 4:3 (3:1,1:1,0:1)
Referees: WALLNER, WUNTSCHEK, Pötscher, Wimmler.
Goals Klagenfurt: 1:0 KA2 Witting S. (03:24 / Pirmann M. ,Kapel R. / EQ), 2:0 KA2 Hammerle V. (04:50 / Hammerle S. ,Witting M. / EQ), 3:1 KA2 Kapel R. (13:37 / Witting S. ,Kernberger M. / EQ), 4:2 KA2 Witting S. (30:15 / Hammerle S. / EQ)
Goals Ritten: 2:1 RIT Kostner S. (05:52 / Spinell M. ,Gabri R. / EQ), 3:2 RIT Öhler M. (23:19 / Quinz S. ,Lang M. / EQ), 4:3 RIT Spinell M. (52:43 / Kostner S. ,Gabri R. / EQ)

Red Bull Hockey Juniors – HC Pustertal 3:2 (0:0,1:1,2:1)
Referees: HLAVATY, LOICHT, Schonaklener, Voican.
Goals Salzburg: 1:0 RBJ Heigl N. (27:12 / Rebernig M. / PP), 2:1 RBJ Polegoshko V. (45:36 / Thaler L. ,Cimmerman S. / EQ), 3:2 RBJ Polegoshko V. (57:11 / Heigl N. / EQ)
Goals Pustertal: 1:1 PUS Perlini B. (27:25 / Carozza M. ,March G. / EQ), 2:2 PUS Glira D. (52:29 / De Lorenzo Meo L. ,Lee S. / EQ)

EHC Lustenau – SHC Fassa Falcons 1:3 (1:0,0:2,0:1)
Referees: HUBER, SCHAUER, Eisl, Rinker.
Goal Lustenau: 1:0 EHC Grabher Meier M. (06:22 / D'Alvise C. ,Connelly B. / EQ)
Goals Fassa: 1:1 FAS Tedesco D. (24:59 / Pace F. ,Hermansson M. / EQ), 1:2 FAS Pace F. (27:35 / Tedesco D. ,Caletti E. / EQ), 1:3 FAS Castlunger M. (40:48 / Iori D. ,Hofer R. / PP)

VEU Feldkirch – Wipptal Broncos Weihenstephan 2:7 (0:1,0:3,2:3)
Referees: HOLZER, LEHNER, Moidl, Spiegel.
Goals Feldkirch: 1:6 VEU Lebeda Y. (53:40 / Grasböck S. / EQ), 2:7 VEU Lundström L. (56:16 / Puschnik K. ,Stanley D. / PP)
Goals Sterzing: 0:1 WSV Kofler T. (14:20 / Niccolai A. ,Valentini R. / EQ), 0:2 WSV Gooch T. (22:31 / Valentini R. ,Hannoun D. / PP), 0:3 WSV Eisendle P. (23:35 / Oberdorfer H. ,Hannoun D. / EQ), 0:4 WSV Mantinger M. (33:19 / Valentini R. ,Gooch T. / EQ), 0:5 WSV Gooch T. (50:14 / Hannoun D. ,Erlacher D. / EQ), 0:6 WSV Oberdorfer H. (51:45 / Eisendle P. ,Gschnitzer D. / EQ), 1:7 WSV Gander M. (54:33 / Mantinger M. ,Valentini R. / EQ)

HDD SIJ Acroni Jesenice – EC Die Adler Stadtwerke Kitzbühel 5:1 (2:0,2:0,1:1)
Referees: GROZNIK, LESNIAK, Javornik, Pagon.
Goals Jesenice: 1:0 JES Jezovsek Z. (11:06 / Hebar A. ,Tomazevic B. / 5:3 PP), 2:0 JES Tomazevic B. (13:49 / Jezovsek Z. ,Sodja J. / PP), 3:0 JES Sodja J. (26:11 / Tomazevic B. ,Dumic M. / EQ), 4:0 JES Hebar A. (33:41 / Stojan N. ,Rajsar S. / PP), 5:0 JES Jezovsek Z. (43:45 / Tomazevic B. ,Sodja J. / EQ)
Goal Kitzbühel: 5:1 KEC Gartner R. (56:38 / Bolterle P. ,Wernerson P. / EQ)

HC Gherdeina valgardena.it – EC Bregenzerwald 2:1 (0:0,0:1,2:0)
Referees: LEGA, STEFENELLI, De Zordo, Mantovani.
Goals Gherdeina: 1:1 GHE Sullmann Pilser M. (55:40 / McGowan B. ,Wilkins M. / PP), 2:1 GHE Wilkins M. (58:18 / unassisted / EQ)
Goal Bregenzerwald: 0:1 ECB Metzler J. (29:34 / Pöschmann P. ,Zwerger J. / PP)

Photo: EC-KAC/Handler