Two top 6 duels on Tuesday

win2day ICE Hockey League:
Tue, 03.01.2023, 19:15: Moser Medical Graz99ers - spusu Vienna Capitals
Referees: FICHTNER, SOOS, Gatol-Schafranek, Voican | >> PPV-Livestream <<

On New Year's Day, the 99ers ended a four-game losing streak with a 3:1 comeback win over Fehérvár and moved back up to ninth place. Just one place but already ten points ahead are the spusu Vienna Capitals, who play their first game of the new year on Tuesday. The Viennese won four of their last five appearances. Caps top scorer Matt Bradley marked seven points (2 goals + 5 assists) in these games, which brought the Canadian back to the top of the team's internal scorer list. Swedish forward Viktor Granholm is the top scorer for Graz with 27 points (14 goals + 13 assists). The two previous duels of the season both went into overtime: on November 1, the Caps had the better end with 3:2, in Graz on November 27, the home side won 4:3.

Tue, 03.01.2023, 19:15: EC-KAC - HK SZ Olimpija
Referees: PIRAGIC, STERNAT, Kis-Kiraly, Vaczi | >> PPV-Livestream <<

EC-KAC consolidated its top-six ranking on New Year's Day with a 3:2 overtime road win at HC Pustertal. Most recently, the Carinthians also showed their defensive stability, conceding only 18 goals in their last ten games (league best). HK Olimpija was able to end its long drought of previously eight defeats in regulation at a stretch on Sunday with a narrow 5:4 away win at Asiago Hockey. The win brought the Green Dragons back within distance of teams ranked ninth to eleventh, but they themselves remain in only twelfth place. Since entering the league in the summer of 2021, HK Olimpija Ljubljana has faced EC-KAC a total of seven times, with five of those encounters ending in a Klagenfurt victory. This includes each of the three previous ones in the current season. The two teams met only last week, when the Redcoats clearly won 6:1 in Slovenia's capital.

Tue, 03.01.2023, 19:15: EC Red Bull Salzburg - Steinbach Black Wings Linz
Referees: M. NIKOLIC, SMETANA, Bedynek, Riecken | >> PPV-Livestream <<

EC Red Bull Salzburg showed a top performance in terms of play on Sunday in a 3:1 win against table neighbor Villach and also secured third place. Steinbach Black Wings Linz suffered a 3:1 home defeat to top-ranked Innsbruck to start the New Year, the Upper Austrians are fifth in the standings. Now it comes to the fourth and last season derby in the regular season. After the reigning champions clearly won the opening duel 5:2 in Linz at the beginning of November, the team of head coach Phil Lukas recently celebrated two victories. The Red Bulls' goal scorers are spread across all four lines this season, which means there is a constant threat on the offensive end. Salzburg's top three scorers - Peter Schneider, Chay Genoway and Benjamin Nissner - all hold exactly ten goals. But Linz's scorers aren't concentrated on just one line, either. Brian Lebler is still the measure of things with 13 goals, but not far behind, forwards like Stefan Gaffal and Shawn St-Amant are showing strongly with eleven goals each.

Tue, 03.01.2023, 19:15: HC TIWAG Innsbruck - EC iDM Wärmepumpen VSV
Referees: HUBER, OFNER, Seewald, Wimmler | >> PPV-Livestream <<

Table leader Innsbruck opened the new year with a 3:1 victory in Linz, it was already the fourth win in a row. EC iDM Wärmepumpen VSV, on the other hand, had to admit defeat with the same result in Salzburg. Despite the narrow loss, the Blue-Whites remain in third place in the away table, just behind Linz and Innsbruck. The Tyroleans also still lead the home table, and scored most goals (133) of all teams. Just a few days ago, the leaders won 5:1 in Villach, with Tyler Coulter scoring twice on power play. While the Carinthians are the best team in the league in terms of points at 5-on-5, the eagles need to improve significantly on special teams: In the entire season, John Hughes and Co. have scored only eleven power play goals so far - Innsbruck, on the other hand, clearly leads this statistic with 34 goals. Marco Richter, who has been ill lately, could return to the VSV line-up.

Tue, 03.01.2023, 19:30: BEMER Pioneers Vorarlberg - HC Pustertal
Referees: HOLZER, K. NIKOLIC, Martin, Sparer | >> PPV-Livestream <<

The BEMER Pioneers Vorarlberg conceded a 2:4 in Bolzano on Sunday. For the last team in the table it was the fourth defeat in a row, the losing streak started with a 0:9 in Bruneck. Since then, HC Pustertal itself took only three points from three games, yesterday the Wolves had to admit defeat against the KAC in overtime. The South Tyroleans currently - due to the better goal difference to Asiago - hold a pre-playoff spot with rank ten. Pustertal got the maximum points from the three duels with the Pioneers so far.

Tue, 03.01.2023, 19:45: Migross Supermercati Asiago Hockey - HCB Südtirol Alperia
Referees: BAJT, ZRNIC, Rigoni, Zgonc | >> PPV-Livestream <<

After Asiago got at least one point in the four games before, the league newcomer was defeated 4:5 at home by Ljubljana (a fellow contender for the pre-playoffs) on Sunday. The Italians gave away a two-goal lead twice. Bolzano showed a confident performance in the home victory over Vorarlberg, it was the fourth success in a row (and the seventh from the last eight games). Now the last "Great Classic" of the Regular Season awaits the two teams at Odegar Stadium. In the three previous duels there were victories for the home team in each case. Two of the games were almost unsurpassable in terms of excitement: In Asiago's win, Anthony Salinitri scored 17 seconds before the end to decide the game. In the latest meeting, however, HCB turned the game in its favor after trailing 0:3.