Image: BWL/Reinhard Eisenbauer
The duels 127 and 128 – and if necessary 129 – between Linz and Graz (since the league was founded in the 2000/2001 season) will decide which of the two teams will move into the pre-playoffs.
The Styrians were able to win three out of four direct encounters in the regular season and were in better form recently. So did Linz choose the wrong opponent? Not necessarily. Because Asiago is in better shape than the 99ers recently, and getting there would have been more difficult. Linz has to forget the direct duels (relatively long ago) and celebrate the first home win of the season over Graz with their own fans behind them.
“The tingling is there, of course. We need every single player. And we need a good performance over the 60 minutes, then I see our chances as pretty good. The home win against Fehervar was very important for the team. There’s always room for improvement we worked today. We have to play our best ice hockey now to be successful,” said coach Philipp Lukas.
Oberkofler urges “tactical discipline”
Daniel Oberkofler, ex-Black Wings striker and Grazer captain, gives Linzers a logic when picking. “I actually expected that they would choose us. If only because the travel hassles are gone. It was the logical step for Linz to choose us.”
“Tactical discipline will be extremely important. That we stick to our plan and do what we can. If we take advantage of the chances in front of the opponent’s goal, we have a good chance of making it 1-0,” says Oberkofler.
In our icebreaker podcast you can hear Robert Lukas’ memories of the first Linz championship year 2002/2003:
Source: Nachrichten
