The bottom of the table from Linz and the penultimate from Villach celebrated away wins in the ICE ice hockey league on Christmas Day. The Black Wings won 2-1 in the debut of neo-trainer Dan Ceman at the Vienna Capitals, the VSV won 3-1 at the Graz99ers. In the long-distance duel for first place, HCB Südtirol maintained the lead with a 2-0 win against Red Bull Salzburg, while Fehervar (4-2 against Bratislava) remained second despite an eighth win in a row.
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Two days after Ceman was presented as the successor to Pierre Beaulieu, the 47-year-old Canadian could look forward to a successful debut. First and foremost, he had to thank the outstanding goalkeeper David Kickert. The former caps goalkeeper fended off 46 shots on goal and was only left behind in a Vienna power play with a shot by Marco Richter (19th). Will Pelletier (20th) and Oskars Bartulis (28./PP) finally shot the Black Wings to their first victory after their last five defeats
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“We had a lot of shots, a lot of opportunities. On the one hand, however, we did not look straight enough for a conclusion. And on the other hand, Kickert also showed some “big saves” in the Linz goal. My team did a lot of things well, for example only allowed 15 shots on goal defensively. In a nutshell: I liked everything, except the result, “said Caps coach Dave Cameron after the fifth defeat in a row.
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In Graz, the downward trend of the 99ers continued with the eleventh defeat in the last twelve games. Matt Mangene scored the decisive goal for the 2-1 lead (37th), Jordan Caron sealed the VSV success with a hit in the empty goal.
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In the first duel of the season between Bolzano and Salzburg, the South Tyroleans benefited from two mistakes by the Bulls in the build-up of the game, which the leaders of the table took advantage of in the middle third to lead them 2-0. Salzburg captain Thomas Raffl had a great chance of scoring the next goal in the 50th minute, but failed with his penalty against goalkeeper Andreas Bernard, who also saved his “shutout” in the finish.
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The Dornbirn Bulldogs won a peat festival against Innsbruck 7: 4 in the West Derby and replaced the Haie in fifth. The Vorarlberg team gambled away a 3-0 lead between the 20th and 25th minutes, but quickly regained their position and shot up a three-goal advantage until the second break, which they never gave up.
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