Ice hockey champions

Undefeated! St. Salvator celebrates with a cup parade

St. Salvator's ice hockey cracks celebrate the championship title at the carnival parade in the village.(Bild: zVg)

Carinthia's ice hockey lower division is in the hot phase with the Division I final. In the lower divisions, six clubs have already been crowned champions. The "Krone" presents them in a separate series. In Unterliga Ost II, St. Salvator triumphed in a curious manner before the end of the basic round ...

No other Carinthian ice hockey club has achieved this! EC St. Salvator went the entire season without defeat in the Unterliga Ost II, winning nine of their ten games in the basic round in regular time and one in overtime. In the final, there were two clear victories over Micheldorf.

No other team apart from St. Salvator went the whole season without defeat in Carinthia this year.(Bild: Hermann Sobe)

In addition, Gernot Winkler (40 points, including 24 goals) was the top scorer, Christoph Bernhart was the most reliable keeper, scored the most goals and conceded the fewest.

We only really struggled against Friesach until the 40th minute, but then won 7:0.

Thomas Ebner, Trainer St. Salvator

Final series brought forward
"Only against Friesach did we really struggle for a long time," said coach Thomas Ebner, literally looking for weak points. But even this game was won 7:0 with five goals in the final period.

St. Salvator won the final series against Micheldorf 2:0.(Bild: Hermann Sobe)

In any case, the final was curious. Because the top 2 with St. Salvator and Micheldorf were already fixed before the end of the basic round, the final series was promptly brought forward. "We really wanted to play at home on natural ice, but we were worried about the weather. Fortunately, the federation gave the go-ahead," says Ebner.

(Bild: zVg)

Celebrating the cup three times
With two victories (3:2, 7:3), they won the final and celebrated the title for the first time immediately afterwards. There was a second celebration after the final home league match against Köttern II, which they also won 11:3.

The champion squad of St. Salvator

• Goal: Christoph Bernhart, Herbert Frieser.
• Defense: Gert-Florian Ebner, Wolfgang Huber, Maximilian Moser, Georg Reichard, Thomas Spendier.
• Offense: David Bischof, Daniel Groicher, Lukas Kernmayer, Gero Knapp, Patrick Koppitsch, Markus KRassnitzer, Rene Kronlechner, Johannes Kuss, Raphael Proprentner, Heimo Salzer, Simon Schrittesser, Marco Stranner, Maxi Süßenbacher, Gernot Winkler, Markus Wriessnegger.

And then they even toured the village like Champions League winners in soccer.

"At the carnival parade, we drove through the village like Real Madrid with the trophy - a real championship parade!" laughs Ebner, who has another treat in store for his team in May.

(Bild: zVg)

On a plane to the Ice Hockey World Cup
"We're flying to Prague for the A World Championships, watching the two decisive Austrian games against Norway and England, and maybe one of the Canadians too."