Ice Hockey League

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The KAC wins a thriller at the Vienna Capitals 7:4.

(Bild: GEPA)

Champions and runners-up have started the new year with prestigious victories in the ICE Hockey League! Defending champions Salzburg won 4:2 at Black Wings Linz on New Year's Day and the KAC won a thrilling 7:4 at the Vienna Capitals.

League leaders HCB Südtirol claimed a 4-2 derby win at bottom-of-the-table Innsbruck, VSV defeated second-placed Fehervar 5-4 on aggregate and the Graz99ers lost 3-2 at home to Olimpija Ljubljana.

The 7022 fans in the Steffl Arena, which was sold out for the first time this season, saw an action-packed exchange of blows between the KAC and the Caps right from the start. Nik Petersen opened the scoring with his eleventh goal of the season after a perfect pass from Jan Mursak (2nd). Klagenfurt countered Joseph Cramarossa's equalizer just 30 seconds later with Matt Fraser (5).

KAC struck at the end
After Fabian Hochegger (18./PP) made it 3:1, the runners-up seemed to have everything under control, but failed to pull further ahead. Evan Jasper, who deflected a shot from the air to make it 2:3 (38'), breathed a lot of life into Vienna's play for the finish of the middle period, in which Willie Raskob scored to tie the game (40').

The second Fraser goal (42./PP), for which Mursak provided his fourth assist of the game, was canceled out less than a minute later by Zane Franklin (43.). However, Mathias From (50) and Daniel Obersteiner (54) decided the game before Fraser completed his hat-trick in the empty net. The KAC have thus carried their strong December form into the new year, picking up 28 of a possible 30 points from their last ten games and are unbeaten in two years or eight duels against the Caps.

Salzburg overtook Linz
In Linz, the hosts took the lead through Sean Collins (4th), but conceded the equalizer just 19 seconds later through Benjamin Nissner. The teams went into the final period tied 2-2, with Salzburg coming out on top thanks to Ryan Murphy (51st) and Peter Schneider (59th/EN). The Black Wings suffered their fourth defeat in the last five games and dropped to fifth place behind the Bulls, who are level on points.

After the narrow defeat against Bolzano, which ended a winning streak of eleven games, VSV got right back on track. After trailing 1:0, the Eagles took a 3:1 lead (31st), but fell behind 4:3 in the final period before Kevin Hancock became the match-winner. The Canadian scored 65 seconds before the final buzzer to send the game into overtime and was the only player to score in the penalty shootout.

The Villach team thus ousted the Graz99ers from the top six. The Styrians clearly dominated the first period against Ljubljana, fell behind twice, which Paul Huber (43rd/PP) and Manuel Ganahl (52nd) were able to equalize. However, the Slovenians struck again in the final minute to celebrate their fifth win in a row under new head coach Andrej Tavzelj.