Steyrer Panther clawed the title of ice hockey vice national champion in Linz

“A pity! Simply not delivered in the decisive game!”, the Linzer Grizzlies summed up on Facebook, after the final siren of the small final of the 1. OÖ. Liwest-Landesliga the gloves and helmets of the Steyrer Panther flew onto the ice. “We didn’t expect it, we just hoped that we would dominate the game against the Grizzlies, who were almost always superior to us,” said Franz Foisner, ATSV ice hockey section manager of the Steyr Panthers, after the unexpected 6:2 (1st minute). :0, 3:1, 2:1) triumph of his cracks over the bears from the state capital.

Because EC Wels lost 2-0 to the Oilers from Salzburg in the best-of-three final, the Steyrers finished third in the league, but finished runners-up in the Upper Austrian state rankings behind the league runners-up and state winner from Wels.

David Vokaty, Martin Sekera and Dominik Pühringer, who were responsible for scoring throughout the championship, had already given the Panthers a 3-0 lead on foreign ice after 27 minutes and stayed on the trigger after Linz’s first goal. Vokaty and Sekera with another brace made the final phase with the 6:1 lead in the 53rd minute just a countdown to the runners-up celebration, which then went into overtime after the beer in the cabin. The puck went like clockwork in front of the opponent’s goal between the Steyrers that evening, and the Panthers consistently struck even when outnumbered. The Steyrers finished three of eight penalties with a goal, while they survived all five of their own bench penalties unscathed. The Oilers, with a lot of players from the Red Bull Salzburg youth squad, will probably remain out of reach next year. “But next year we will be Wels as OÖ. Challenge national champions,” said Foisner.