From Tuesday, the 99ers will determine the last two places for the quarter-final play-off in “Best of three” mode against Black Wings Linz and Fehervar against Asiago. The seventh-placed Linzers had the right to pick and chose Graz as their opponent.
The quarter-final duels will then take place from March 7th in “Best of seven” mode. Bolzano, Salzburg, Innsbruck, the Carinthian clubs VSV and KAC as well as the Vienna Capitals are definitely qualified for this.
Graz doesn’t have to tremble for long
In Graz, Daniel Woger put the 99ers on the road to victory early on (2nd). In the middle third, Sam Antonitsch and again Woger brought about the preliminary decision in favor of the Styrians in the power play. Antonitsch tied his brace in the final section, also outnumbered, and scored to make it 4-0. The clearly inferior Pioneers ended the season bottom of the table.
The season for Pustertal is also over. Despite the clear success against Ljubljana, the Wolves missed the leap into the top ten due to the victory of the 99ers. The Slovenians were already set as penultimate before the game.
Salzburg loses in Bolzano
In the summit meeting of the last round, Bozen kept the upper hand against Salzburg. Thanks to goals from Angelo Miceli and Cole Hults, the South Tyroleans turned the game around in the final third and went into the play-off as the clear winner of the regular season as the top seeded team.
The Black Wings secured seventh place thanks to a 4-2 win in a direct duel with Fehervar. After a balanced first third (1:1), Linz decided the game with three goals in the middle third, the Hungarians only managed to make up for the result.
In the Vienna Capitals game against the third-placed Haie from Innsbruck, the standings were set in stone even before the last game. Nevertheless, the Viennese gained self-confidence for the play-offs with a 5:3 home win. Asiago clearly won 5-1 against KAC and finished the regular season in ninth place.
Win2day ICE Hockey League
Sunday:
Graz – Vorarlberg 4: 0
(1:0 2:0 1:0)
Tore: Woger (2., 37./PP), Antonitsch (21./PP, 58./PP)
Penalty minutes: 6 or 31
Bolzano – Salzburg 4: 3
(1:2 1:1 2:0)
Goals: Hults (14th / PP, 58th), Miceli (23rd / PP, 48th / PP) or Thaler (7th), Cernik (19th), Heinrich (38th)
Penalty minutes: 4 or 12
Vienna – Innsbruck 5:3
(2:1 1:0 2:2)
Goals: Prokes (10′), Preiser (13′), Krys (38′), Finkelstein (53′), Bradley (60’/EN) or Leavens (18′), Helewka (41′) Peeters (50′)
Penalty minutes: 10 or 6
Linz – Fehervar 4: 2
(1:1 3:1 0:0)
Goals: Brucker (20′), Kristler (23′, 27′), Knott (26’/PP) and Mihaly (17′), Stipsicz (33′)
Penalty minutes: 2 or 6
Asiago – KAC 5:1
(0:0 2:1 3:0)
Tore: Salinitri (22nd, 51st, 58th), Misley (25th), Rutkowski (49th/PP) bzw. Haudum (29.)
Penalty minutes: 0 or 8
Pustertal – Ljubljana 7:2
(1:0 4:1 2:1)
Tore: Archambault (2./PP2), Hannoun (21.), Ege (24.), Harju (26.), Catenacci (35.), Harju (43.), Andergassen (56.) bzw. Zajc (32.), Sodja (42.)
Penalty minutes: 8 or 8
