Ice Hockey League

KAC still has Caps under control ++ Salzburg wins!

Strong performance by the KAC against the Vienna Capitals

(Bild: GEPA)

Record champions KAC moved to within one point of leaders Fehervar in the ICE Hockey League with a 6-1 win at home against the Vienna Capitals on Sunday! The Hungarians conceded a 5-0 defeat at the Pustertal Wölfen. Salzburg won the duel for fourth place against Black Wings Linz 3:1. Graz are now fifth after a 2:1 win at the Pioneers Vorarlberg. VSV won 3:1 at home against South Tyrol, Ljubljana 3:2 at Asiago.

The KAC celebrated their ninth home win in a row after their recent 3:4 slip-up at Pustertal, and their winning streak against the Caps, who were without seven injured players, has now lasted more than two years. It was only on New Year's Day that the Red Jackets won 7:4 in Vienna. With two goals in each period, the question of victory was settled quite clearly, Nik Petersen scored twice in front of more than 4300 spectators. Klagenfurt have already overtaken Fehervar in terms of points lost, as they have played two games less.

The Magyars were in a losing position against Pustertal. The ninth-placed Wolves thus achieved the feat of winning against the current top two in the league within 48 hours. With a 2:0 lead after just eight minutes, the visitors were bought off. The fact that the KAC was one of the winners of the 41st round and that the group of candidates for the top 6 and the fixed places in the quarter-finals moved closer together was also due to VSV. All three goals against the team from Bolzano were scored within twelve minutes in the second period.

Top 7 move to eleven points
The top 7 are now only separated by eleven points, with Salzburg seven points behind in the middle. They were caught cold by Raphael Wolf's 0:1 after just 67 seconds, which remained Linz's only goal of the day. Peter Schneider (23') equalized, Lucas Thaler (29') and Thomas Raffl (60') fixed the final score. Goalie David Kickert was one of the match winners. "We got into the game better from period to period, closed up well at the back and deserved to win," Thaler summed up.

The match-winner for the Graz 99ers was Jimmy Oligny with his goals in the 4th and 33rd minute. The final goal for the Pioneers by Joshua Passolt was only scored in the 56th minute and ultimately too late.