Vienna and Linz take the lead

12 Mar 2013 | Alan Ilijic

The favorites on the table after regular season, 1st seeded Vienna Capitals and 2nd seeded Linz both took the lead in the semifinals series of this season's EBEL playoffs.

Vienna - Salzburg 6:2 (Vienna lead 1-0)

Matt Zaba started in the net for the Caps, and Bernd Bruckler for Salzburg. Even in the first 10 minutes of the first period the home team showed who were favorites here and showed their teeth. First Markus Schlacher opened the scoring, a minute later Justin Keller doubles the lead, and by the 12th minute Rafael Rotter puts elusive 3:0 on the board. Until the end of the period only two penalties were drawn, Daniel Richmond of Salzburg got called for cross-checking, while Rotted spent two minutes in the box after interfereing with Salzburg's player.

Early in the second Keller scores another one, and in the 30th minute Tony Romano gives the Caps an incredible 5:0 edge. Thomas Raffl and Dominique Heinrich managed to decrease the lead. In the third period from the 51st to the 57th minute there were unbeliveable 28 minutes of penalties on both sides. Until the end Philipp Pinter scored to give the Caps a bigger win.

Linz - KAC 3:1 (Linz lead series 1-0)

Linz had a slight advantage in this one, given that they were playing at home ice. David Lenevau was the starting goalie for Linz, while René Swette stood between the pipes for KAC. The game started with two penalties against KAC, but the result was scoreless until the 15th minute when Rob Hisey fired on an assist by Brian Lebler and Danny Irmen. That was the result of the first period.

In the second period Florian Iberer reduced the lead of Linz, assists were by Thomas Hundertpfund and Mike Siklenka. That was all that happened during the middle period.

During the last 20 minutes of play everything was calm until the 58th minute when Kirk Furey (KAC) and Fabian Scholz (Linz) got called to the box for high sticking. In four-on-four Linz were luckier and saw Mike Ouellette score to take the lead. 20 seconds later Swette was pulled to the bench, but 15 seconds prior to the end Fabian Scholz confirmed Linz's victory with an empty-netter.

Games 2 of the semifinals will take place Friday at 19:15 CET.