EBEL, second round of second part of the season

EC-KAC – KHL Medvescak Zagreb  4:5 (3:2, 0:2, 1:1)
Third consecutive victory for Medvescak in Klagenfurt! They were already 1:3 down, but they turned the result completely and won 5:3. Martin Schumnig opened the scoring in 3rd minute power play for KAC (1:0), who was dominating the ice during opening minutes. The dominancy continued after first goal, but Greg Day equalized in 7th minute PP for Medvescak (1:1). Another powerplay goal renewed the lead for KAC in 9th minute, when Christoph Brandner scored (2:1). Thomas Koch added a shorthanded goal for KAC in 12th minute (3:1), but Andy Sertich on the other side did it as well in 17th minute (3:2). Second period wasn’t so fluent. Joey Tenute and Paul Schellander failed to score on nice opportunities for KAC, or better said – Robert Kristan saved their shots with fantastic reactions. Tom Zanodski’s rebound gave guests from Zagreb an equalizer in 28th minute (3.3). Matt Siddall gave guests first lead of the game in 32nd minute (3:4) to complete the turnaround. Frank Banham was next to score, as he extended Medvescak’s lead in 42nd minute. Joey Tenute scored in 52nd minute (4:5). It was the final goal of the night and so the guests from Zagreb won. Medvescak is second in the group with 5 points, KAC are fourth with 3 points.

EHC Liwest Black Wings Linz – HDD TILIA Olimpija Ljubljana  4:0 (1:0, 1:0, 2:0)
Two days after winning in Zagreb, Black Wings won another game with shut-out! Although it seemed they lost a bit of their early season form a week ago, they proved in both opening games of the second part of the season they are still on top of their performances. Guests were forced to defend right from the start of the game. Mike Ouellette scored in PP in 2nd minute already (1:0). Superior Black Wings failed to score on series of good opportunities. Guests on the other hand managed to prepare two nice chances at the end of period, but were ineffective. Guests performed better during most of the second period, but could not score. Linz however, did. It was Danny Irmen who took advantage of 40th minute power-play to extend home team’s lead (2:0). Irmen and Rob Hisey failed to score on great chances right at the beginning of final period, but Brian Lebler did it in 50th minute (3:0). Guests were desperately trying to do something, but they couldn’t. They pulled off  their goalie for an extra skater as much as four minutes before the end of the game, but it only resulted in empty-netter for Phillip Lukas in 57th minute (4:0). Linz is – as usually this season – on top of the league with 8 points and empty net after two games of the second part of the season. Olimpija is on bottom of Top 6 group and is yet to win a point.

EC Red Bull Salzburg – SAPA Fehervar AV19  1:7 (0:1, 0:2, 1:4)
Home crowd expected an easy win, as Salzburg won over Sapa in previous 13 consecutive Volksgarten games. It seems now that the players of Red Bulls also did. First period was quite equal on both sides. Red Bulls were unable to produce dangerous chances and Sapa played their well-known defensive game with killer breakaways. Marton Vas scored on one of such counter attacks in 10th minute (0:1). Second period looked quite similar, although guests from Hungary scored twice. First it was Arpad Mihaly in 29th minute PP (0:2), followed by Krisztian Palkovics’s goal in 30th minute (0:3). Manuel Latusa was the only Red Bull in chance to score in second period, but he failed to do so. Some minor chances to turnaround the result for Salzburg faded right on the start of the third period, when Mihaly (41st, 0:4) and Istvan Sofron (42nd, 0:5) already sealed the game. Six minutes later Sofron added another (0:6) and it was only a tiny consolation for Salzburg when Thomas Raffl scored in 52nd minute (1:6). Balasz Ladanyi later scored the final goal of the night in 57th minute (1:7) to confirm surprisingly, but well deserved win for Hungarians in Salzburg. Sapa is now third with four points, Red Bulls are fifth with two.

HK Acroni Jesenice – UPC Vienna Capitals  1:4 (0:0, 0:3, 1:1)
Week of shocks for Jesenice was followed with a defeat last night. President of the club and their biggest sponsor Acroni resigned and acted like insulted virgin during last few days. EBEL executives ultimate Slovenian champions with some demands to proceed playing in the league, their captain and goalie left the club and there were more announcements for departures. The whole situation eased a bit and impoverished team tried to perform their best against Vienna. The crowd was expectantly poor, but very loud, and it gave home youngsters enormous support. Jesenice actually were slightly better team during the first period and there were already calculations in the crowd of how to progress into play-off. No goals were scored though. Jonathan Ferland opened the scoring in 21st minute (0:1) and put the young and inexperienced home team in front of difficult task. Jesenice players tried their best, but then there was also so called “referee factor”. It all started in 23nd minute when home team committed their own un-forced mistake – they were punished for too many players on the ice. In addition to this, they were ruled another 16 minutes of penalties inside next four and a half minutes and ref’s were awarded with enormous boo’s from the crowd. Guests used their chances and Andre Lakos scored twice in 28th minute (0:2 PP2 and 0:3 PP). Referees were awarded with cynical applauses at that point. Heikki Mälkia, home coach called time-out and gave some advices to his team. Jesenice later on had a chance to score on their own 5 on 3 situation, but couldn’t. Antti Pusa scored a consolation goal for home team in 46th minute (1:3) but there was no more power and no ideas left inside home team to turn the result completely. In fact, Ferland scored another goal for Vienna in 54th minute, only this time it was shorthanded (1:4). Capitals are now second in qualification group, levelled with Graz on top with five points. Jesenice remain last without points.

Moser Medical Graz99ers - EC REKORD-Fenster VSV  4:0 (0:0, 2:0, 2:0)
It was a seventh consecutive home win for Graz last night. Both teams were precautious during the first period and chances were rare. Patrick Harand failed to beat guest’s goalie Starkbaum on one of these and Gerhard Unterluggauer was close to score on the other side. Shorthanded goal for 99ers right at the start of the second period shocked guests – Zdenek Blatny did it (1:0). Shane Toporowski failed to equalize in the same minute. Guillaume Lefebvre prepared another goal for Graz with marvellous solo-effort in 26th minute and Sven Klimbacher had no problems to score (2:0).  Guests were probably in shock and didn’t manage to perform any good in remaining minutes of the second period. Graz was close to extend the lead though, since Toni Dahlman hit the frame of guest’s goal with his shot and Lefebvre missed another nice chance to score. He was also in a good opportunity right at the start of the final period, but he missed once again. Lefebvre finally scored in 48th minute (3:0) and since he discovered a prescription to beat Starkbaum he added another in 50th minute (4:0). Standing ovations followed fourth 99ers goal and guests were really idealess. Graz is now on top of the qualification group with five points, VSV are third with three.

Schedule for next round, Friday, January 27th, 2012:
TOP6:
Linz: BW Linz – RB Salzburg
Ljubljana (SLO): Olimpija – Medvescak
Szekesfehervar (HUN): Sapa AV19 – EC KAC

Qualification group:
Znojmo (CZE): Orli Znojmo – HK Jesenice
Villach: EC VSV – Vienna Capitals

 

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