3:0 – The Black Wings have everything under control

2023-10-29 19:30:00

The Steinbach Black Wings didn’t let the narrow 2:3 defeat at Villacher SV throw them off track and found their way back to winning ways less than 48 hours later. The Linz ice hockey cracks retained the upper hand 3-0 (1-0, 1-0, 1-0) against Innsbruck’s “Haie”, who advanced to the round of 16 in the Champions League.

That was just to the taste of the 2,770 fans at the Untere Donaulände, where Philipp Lukas’ team has already gone 120 minutes without conceding a goal. After Thomas Höneckl (in the 6-0 win against Graz), Rasmus Tirronen also managed a so-called shutout. The Finnish goalkeeper saved all 25 shots from the Tyroleans, while the Upper Austrians had 33.

Three of them fidgeted in the net: Captain Brian Lebler scored with the advantage for the seventh time this season (10th), defender Martin Stajnoch (34th) and center Sean Collins (49th), who is getting better and better, refined the work. “We did a good job, the fans gave us great support,” said a delighted striker Andreas Kristler.

“It was a difficult task for us against an offensively strong opponent, game management was a very important aspect. It was important that we were able to take the lead,” said coach Philipp Lukas: “We had some tricky situations in the second third But Rasmus Tirronen mastered everything. The team did everything they could to win this match. I’m proud of that.”

Now the Black Wings can take a breather and enjoy a Monday off: “It’s important for us to recover. It was a strenuous phase for the body and also for the mind,” emphasized Lukas. His team will not play on Wednesday, Olimpija Ljubljana will come to the Linz AG ice arena on Friday (7:15 p.m.). The focus is on the future – also in the table.

The EHC is currently in fourth place, the gap to defending champion and leader Salzburg (2:1 in Graz) is five points.