When the captain is needed, there is no stopping him. Brian Lebler returned earlier than expected after suffering a shoulder injury on January 1st and played his part in getting the Steinbach Black Wings back on track. Almost 48 hours after the 4-1 defeat against Bolzano, the people of Linz clearly defeated bottom-placed Pioneers Vorarlberg 5-0 (1-0, 3-0, 1-0) in front of 2,660 fans at the Untere Donaulände. This was revenge for the 2:3 home defeat against the cracks from the Ländle on October 26th.
Although Lebler did not have a scorer point, his physical presence alone is worth gold for the EHC. Because KAC lost 4-3 after extra time at defending champions Salzburg, the Black Wings’ lead in seventh place grew to six points. The top six qualify directly for the play-off quarterfinals.
“We’re aiming for that, but we won’t count on it,” said coach Philipp Lukas, for whom the offensive yield was satisfactory this time. In the eight previous games, the Upper Austrians had only scored 14 goals, yesterday it rang five times. This was mainly due to Martin Schumnig, who entered the shooting list twice. The 1:0 (18th) was the can opener, the 4:0 (38th) bonus. Michael Haga (25th), Brodi Stuart (37th) and Graham Knott (46th) also scored. Goalie Thomas Höneckl defused all 23 shots by the guests. Haga’s goal was also the 100th of the current season. For classification: After the 5-0 home win, the Black Wings are still five goals short of the final tally of the previous season after the regular season.
Despite the one-sided action, the emotions erupted (49th), after a controversy in the gang, fists flew, Andreas Kristler, Brodi Stuart and Tobias Reinbacher went to the penalty box to cool down.
The Linz team will continue on Tuesday with a guest appearance in Villach. We report – as usual – via live ticker from 6.15 p.m.
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