Three teams keep clean sheet

Cortina shows efficiency
Mikko Vainonen celebrated his debut for Cortina in the road game in Klobenstein. The visitors' defence had a lot to do right away, but Sharp (13th), Quinz and shortly afterwards Uusivirta (both 14th) were caught by goalkeeper Marco De Filippo Roia, who was back in Cortina's net for the first time after a long injury break. After the restart, it only took 42 seconds for Cortina to take the lead. Chad Pietroniro's pass was deflected by a player from Ritten into his own goal. A brace by Phil Pietroniro towards the end of the period made things clearer - 0:3. In the final period, not much happened at first, but four minutes before the end of the game, the hosts took a timeout and goalie Cavallin was taken off the ice for a sixth player. Remy Giftopoulos then scored the final goal with an empty netter and goalie Marco De Filippo Roia was able to celebrate a shutout. Cortina, who moved up three places and are now eighth, thus also won the second duel of the season. The Buam are still in twelfth place.

Sterzing again keeps the upper hand
The Wipptal Broncos Weihenstephan and the SHC Fassa Falcons met back-to-back. The two teams already faced each other on Monday in Fassa, when the "Broncos" celebrated a 4:3 victory after penalty shootout. The second duel was similarly exciting, with Fassa again narrowly losing out. After a goalless first period, Daniel Tedesco (27th) gave the visitors the lead with a two man advantage. But only 52 seconds later Markus Gander equalised. In the 49th minute, Gander turned the game around with a power play goal, but Tedesco (52./PP) also added a second - 2:2. The game went into overtime, in which Trevor Gooch ensured the decision. With the second win against Fassa (10th place) Sterzing moved up to 13th place. In the tenth AHL meeting it was also the ninth win for the Broncos.

Vallini shutout against Jesenice
Migross Supermercati Asiago Hockey and HDD SIJ Acroni Jesenice played a duel between two table neighbours. The two teams played an open battle for 60 minutes, with Gianluca Vallini stopping all 23 shots on his goal. At first, the visitors from Slovenia had a lot of puck possession without being really dangerous. Then, after twelve minutes, a Gellert shot from the blue line landed in the goal - 1:0 Asiago. It took until the 38th minute before Steven McParland increased the score on the hosts' second power play. In the third period, Alex Gellert scored the final goal to make it 3-0, putting Asiago back on the winning track after two previous defeats. With this win the Italians overtook two teams in the standings and are now in fifth place. Jesenice, who always scored in the previous three duels against Asiago and were goalless this time, is now in ninth position.

Pustertal keeps up winning streak
Wednesday saw the first duel of the season between EC Die Adler Stadtwerke Kitzbühel and league leader HC Pustertal. Before the game, the balance was clearly in favour of the guests, who have always gained at least one point in ten duels against each other so far. In the tenth minute, Ivan Althuber gave HCP the lead in their second power play - it remained 0:1 after the first period. But after more than 100 minutes without conceding a goal, the Bruneck defence was beaten again when a Wernerson shot found its way into the net. Despite a playful superiority of the league leader, Kitzbühel won the middle period. But shortly after the restart it was Max Oberrauch who made it 1:2. After six defeats in a row, the "eagles" showed morale and equalised again through David Kreuter. The game went into overtime and when everything already looked like a shootout, Daniel Glira ensured the Pustertal victory five seconds before the end. It was the fifth win in a row for the league leaders. The KEC, who slipped to 14th place, at least got a point after more than a month.

Ljubljana wins away again
After two away defeats, Ljubljana struck back in Wolkenstein. Ziga Pance took the lead in the third minute. Only a short time later Nik Simsic increased it to 0:2. The home side created several good chances during the game and also fired 35 shots goalwards, all of which were saved by Olimpija netminder Paavo Holsa. In the second period, Mehle and Zorko scored to give the Slovenians a comfortable lead. Ten minutes before the end, Tadej Cimzar, who scored one goal and set up two, made the final score 0:5. With the clear victory, second-placed Ljubljana also reduced the gap to league leader Pustertal. Val Gardena, on the other hand, slipped to eleventh place with their second defeat of the season against Olimpija.

Ritten enters Serie A semi-finals
The race between the Italian teams for a place in the Serie A semi-finals was also decided. Because of Fassa's overtime defeat in Sterzing on Wednesday evening, the 4-0 home defeat suffered by the Rittner Buam against Cortina shortly before had no effect. Alongside Pustertal, Asiago and Cortina, Santeri Heiskanen's team now completes the field of participants. The semi-finals will be played at the end of January.

Alps Hockey League:
Wed, 06.01.2021, 17.30: Rittner Buam – S.G. Cortina Hafro 0:4 (0:0,0:3,0:1)
Referees: MOSCHEN, STEFENELLI, Bedana, Fleischmann.
Goals Cortina: 0:1 SGC Pietroniro C. (20:42 / unassisted / EQ), 0:2 SGC Pietroniro P. (35:17 / Cordiano M. ,Giftopoulos R. / PP), 0:3 SGC Pietroniro P. (36:33 / Cazzola M. ,Pietroniro C. / EQ), 0:4 SGC Giftopoulos R. (57:02 / unassisted / EQ)

Wed, 06.01.2021, 18.00: Wipptal Broncos Weihenstephan – SHC Fassa Falcons 3:2 OT (0:0,1:1,1:1,1:0) 
Referees: GIACOMOZZI F., LEGA, Cristeli, Piras. 
Goals Wipptal: 1:1 WSV Gander M. (27:36 / Gschnitzer T. ,Bernard D. / EQ), 2:1 WSV Gander M. (48:25 / Gschnitzer T. ,Mantinger M. / PP), 3:2 WSV Gooch T. (62:03 / Hannoun D. / EQ)
Goals Fassa: 0:1 FAS Tedesco D. (26:44 / Caletti E. ,Iori D. / 5:3 PP), 2:2 FAS Tedesco D. (51:27 / Mizzi J. ,Hermansson M. / PP)

Wed, 06.01.2021, 19.00: Migross Supermercati Asiago Hockey – HDD SIJ Acroni Jesenice 3:0 (1:0,1:0,1:0) 
Referees: LAZZERI, PINIE, Slaviero, Weiss. 
Goals Asiago: 1:0 ASH Gellert A. (12:16 / Marchetti M. ,Mantenuto D. / EQ), 2:0 ASH McParland S. (37:41 / Magnabosco J. ,Gellert A. / PP), 3:0 ASH Gellert A. (47:06 / Rosa M. ,Magnabosco J. / PP)

Wed, 06.01.2021, 19.30: EC Die Adler Stadtwerke Kitzbühel – HC Pustertal 2:3 OT (0:1,1:0,1:1,0:1) 
Referees: HOLZER, WALLNER, Huber, Kainberger
Goals Kitzbühel: 1:1 KEC Wernerson P. (26:02 / Wernerson L. ,Putnik P. / EQ), 2:2 KEC Kreuter D. (46:05 / Ebner M. ,Eder M. / EQ)
Goals Pustertal: 0:1 PUS Althuber I. (09:54 / Andergassen R. ,Carozza M. / PP), 1:2 PUS Oberrauch M. (41:55 / Lee S. ,Cianfrone B. / EQ), 2:3 PUS Glira D. (64:55 / unassisted / EQ)

Wed, 06.01.2021, 20.30: HC Gherdeina valgardena.it – HK SZ Olimpija Ljubljana 0:5 (0:2,0:2,0:1) 
Referees: BENVEGNU, EGGER, De Zordo, Montovani. 
Goals Ljubljana: 0:1 HKO Pance Z. (02:32 / Zajc M. ,Music A. / EQ), 0:2 HKO Simsic N. (08:50 / Sever M. ,Kujavec A. / EQ), 0:3 HKO Mehle Z. (24:35 / Zezelj G. ,Cimzar T. / EQ), 0:4 HKO Zorko L. (33:56 / Zajc M. ,Cimzar T. / EQ), 0:5 HKO Cimzar T. (50:09 / Ulamec L. ,Kujavec A. / EQ)

Photo: Vito De Romeo