Without the league’s top scorer, the Black Wings’ proud home series was broken

December 26, 2023 was not the day of the Steinbach Black Wings, and the mood in the dressing room was correspondingly subdued. This was not only due to the 1:3 (1:0, 0:2, 0:1) defeat against Innsbruck’s “Haie”, but also due to the absence of the league’s top scorer. Graham Knott (19 goals, 23 assists) is currently sorely missed. After the 3-2 win after extra time over leaders Fehervar, the 26-year-old striker asked the club grandees to be allowed to fly to his Canadian homeland during the Christmas holidays for family reasons.

“Of course we fulfilled this wish,” the Linzers said in their social networks: “Sometimes there are simply more important things in life than ice hockey.” Definitely.

Knott, who was replaced by youngsters Carlos Feldbaumer (21) and Raffael Aigner (18) from the Steel Wings, will also play tomorrow’s guest game in Feldkirch against the Pioneers Vorarlberg (7.30 p.m., live ticker on nachrichten.at) and perhaps the home game against the Graz 99ers miss on Saturday (6 p.m.). A return is expected at the end of the week. Knott has all the time in the world.

Because the human touch comes first for the Black Wings. This was also evident on Friday when little “Luki”, who had just been released from the hospital, was able to meet his idol Emilio Romig and take home an ice hockey stick as a Christmas present.

There are also mostly positive things to report about the Black Wings in terms of sport. The end of a series shouldn’t change that. Before the match against the Tyroleans, who have been fickle this season, the EHC had celebrated nine home wins en suite. It wasn’t enough for the tenth anniversary, although Linz took the lead in the power play after a powerful start through Romig (9th).

Innsbruck held on and turned the tables: 15 seconds after the start of the middle third they equalized (Kevin Roy/21st), Corey Mackin made it 1:2 (26th).

The Black Wings, who incidentally remained without points for the first time since September 24th (1:4 against Pustertal) at the Untere Donaulände, no longer had an answer.