Ritten moves on

Ritten started the derby series against HC Pustertal as the slight favourite. After 4 games played the series was tied at two and Game 5 was played in ‘Rienzstadion’, home of HC Pustertal. The home team, which was named EV Bruneck until the year 2000, knew this would be their chance to put the defending champions under pressure. The first team to score though were the “Buam” from Ritten, thanks to a deflection by Dan Tudin.

In the 2^nd period HCP-captain Armin Helfer on the PP shot from the blue line, the puck was saved by Fabian Weinhandl, but somehow hit a skate to tie the game. Shortly after Pustertal could not capitalize on a 5:3 PP-situation and so Game 5 had to be decided in the last period.

Not even 3 minutes played and Simon Kostner beat Jerry Kuhn with a perfectly placed wrist shot to give Ritten the lead. National team forward Gulio Scandella made a huge mistake a couple of minutes later and it was once again Kostner to punish the Wolves and give his team a 3:1 lead. Pustertal tried to come back and managed to go within one goal with a goal by Max Oberrauch, but it was not enough.

At this point Pustertal had to win on the road in order to extend the series to 7 games. It did not go their way though, as it was Ritten to gain a 2:0-lead in the first 20 minutes. Patrick Rissmiller, who can look back at over 200 games in the NHL, and Luca Ansoldi stepped up for their team. The “Wölfe” tried everything, but the Austrian goalie Fabian Weinhandl stood on his head. With 22 seconds to go Giulio Scandella gave some hope to his team, but it was too little, too late.

Pustertal overall had a solid season and may have had the most exciting forward of the league in Philip-Michael Devos. Jerry Kuhn also provided strong goaltending and a lot of their young players, such as Daniel Glira, Danny Elliscasis or Lukas Crepaz, made significant steps in their development. Still, once again, it was not enough for HCP to finally win their first ‘scudetto’ in club history.

Tweets by @eurohockey