The superior league leaders prevailed at home against champions KAC with 3:0 (1:0,1:0,1:0) and has scored in 19 of the last 20 league games. On the other hand, KAC’s last strong away series is over – as is the negative run of the Dornbirn Bulldogs, who defeated the Graz99ers 2:1 (0:1,2:0,0:0) after five defeats in a row.
The KAC slipped back to fourth place in the table due to point arithmetic. The Klagenfurt have recently scored in nine away games in a row, as well as in the last six league games they played. The defending champion was also successful in Salzburg in the recent past. In the fourth and last comparison of the regular season between the two top teams, however, the hosts triumphed for the first time.
Salzburg redeemed themselves after the surprising 3-1 defeat in Innsbruck on Friday, which ended their points streak after 18 games. Florian Baltram, who had already provided assists in the first three games of the season with KAC, gave the Bulls the lead in front of 700 spectators on the power play (8th).
In the middle third, Peter Schneider followed suit (35th). With his 23rd goal of the season, the ÖEHV team striker drew level with Brian Lebler from Black Wings Linz at the top of the ICE scoring list. Salzburg’s parade attacking line by captain Thomas Raffl (58th) ensured the final point. In the most recent 5:4 win against KAC on December 21 in Klagenfurt, Schneider and Raffl even scored twice.
Dornbirn turned the game against Graz on their own ice. After falling behind due to a counterattack by Lukas Kainz (20th), Pawlo Padakin (23rd) and Simeon Schwinger (30th) were successful. The Grazers failed to convert their chances and were not able to convert their clear shooting superiority of 39:16 into further goals. Dornbirn is still penultimate, but improved its point average to exactly one point.
Meanwhile, there was bad news for Linz at the bottom: The Upper Austrians have to do without ex-national player Rafael Rotter until the end of the season. According to the club, the 34-year-old striker suffered a knee injury in training on Thursday and underwent surgery on Saturday. Rotter moved to Linz in the summer after 13 seasons with the Vienna Capitals.
His ex-club did not play at the weekend. The Capitals had already declared that they were “unplayable” on Saturday for the home game against VSV that was postponed to Sunday. The Viennese reported six positive corona cases. According to an ICE spokesman, the Covid special commission and the league’s legal department will decide how the matter will be handled in the coming days.
Source: Nachrichten
