A certain uncertainty was obvious after the two narrow defeats last week against Fehervar (0:1) and in Villach (2:3). If you want to get back on the road to victory with all your might, you sometimes tend to cramp.
This also applied to the ice hockey cracks of the Steinbach Black Wings, but this time luck was on their side. The final moment in front of 2150 fans in the Linz-AG-Eisarena belonged to Graham Knott, he was the only one of the six shooters in the shootout who put his attempt into the net. The Upper Austrians retained the upper hand 3:2 after extra time.
This injection of morale is good before the tough trip to the city of Mozart. On Sunday (3 p.m., live ticker on nachrichten.at) there will be none other than the reigning champion Red Bull Salzburg, against whom the Black Wings lost 5-2 in the first duel of the season.
But maybe this time “momentum” will play into their hands. Because the “Red Bulls” have had to put up with a few sensitive defeats recently. In the ICE Hockey League they didn’t score a single goal in their last three away matches (0:1 in Bozen, 0:1 in Graz, on Friday 0:3 in Vienna), in the Champions League it was not unexpected that Rögle was eliminated.
“Salburg has a lot of quality. We have to deliver a top performance in order to survive,” says striker Marco Brucker, who made it 1-0 (9th) against Ljubljana on the power play. In an unusual outfit, by the way. The people of Linz wore special outfits decorated with mustaches (in the club colors) to commemorate the so-called “Movember” movement in November.
Donations are collected here for the research and prevention of prostate cancer and other health problems in men.
Lebler’s eleventh goal of the season
A very commendable move that the Black Wings performance on the ice couldn’t quite keep up with. Although the people of Linz fought self-sacrificingly, the disc didn’t always work as it should. Even after Brian Lebler’s eleventh goal of the season to make it 2-0 (17th), things didn’t go as hoped.
On the contrary: The Slovenians hit back – and at the worst possible moment. The 1:2 (40 th ) 35 seconds before the second break gave Ljubljana the second breath, Chris Dodero made it 2:2 in the 49th minute, which was not even that undeserved when looking at the shot statistics.
The bottom line was 35:25 shots in favor of the guests. Nevertheless, there was a happy ending for the Black Wings, who missed the creativity, the eye, the passing game and the final strength of the Norwegian team player Michael Haga everywhere. The 30-year-old was not yet match fit after an illness.
What else happened? Innsbruck’s “Haie” maintained their lead in the standings with a 5-3 win over Pustertal, pursuers Bozen triumphed 1-0 in Klagenfurt, Fehervar ended the run of Villacher SV, who had previously won five times en suite, with a 4-3 away win .
Source: Nachrichten
