2023-11-03 20:40:00
Even though the Black Wings goalkeeper’s goal barrier was broken by Ljubljana center forward Maris Bicevskis following an impressive 142:17 minutes, the EHC Linz was not stopped and maintained its position at the top of the ICE Hockey League with a 4:2-(1 :0, 1:1, 2:1) home win in front of 2866 eyewitnesses. Among them was ex-Wings striker Daniel Oberkofler (926 league matches), who was received with applause and chants.
Before the opening face-off in the Linz AG ice arena, the mood was anything but exuberant, the cracks from both clubs – united in the tragedy – had formed a circle, they bowed their heads and commemorated the drop of a pin in a minute’s silence might have heard, Adam Johnson. The US professional and former teammate of league top scorer Graham Knott had a fatal accident in an English Cup match last Saturday. In addition to the 29-year-old’s portrait, a candle and the words “In loving memory” in English appeared on the video cube.
But the show must go on, that’s what the job demands, which the Black Wings carry out in a highly professional manner. They tied up the “Dragons” from Slovenia in the first third almost like a power play, 19:8 shots and the 1:0 by fourth-line striker Marco Brucker following 148 seconds (3rd) were the logical consequence.
Not for the first time the thread was to break in the second half, but following the 1:1 (23rd minute) captain Brian Lebler got the ship back on track with his league goals 357, 358 and 359. One hit is still missing from the record.
Am Sunday (4:30 p.m., live ticker on nachrichten.at) The Black Wings are visiting reigning champions and leaders Salzburg, who won the first duel of the season 4:3 following a penalty shootout. It is a tradition that hundreds of Linz fans make their way to the city of Mozart to support their EHC.
“That’s impressive. I experienced that when I made my debut with the Salzburg professionals (2018/19, note),” recalls Wings striker Nico Feldner in the OÖN podcast “Eisbrecher”.
After the final siren, the Wings can take a deep breath; due to the international break with the Germany Cup (without Linz participating), the game will only continue once morest Pustertal on November 17th. “It’s important to recover. It was a strenuous phase for body and mind,” says coach Philipp Lukas, who will give his protégés at least five days off in two stages.
ePaper
Author
Alexander Zambarloukos
Sports editor
Alexander Zambarloukos
Are you interested in this topic?
By clicking on the “Save” symbol you can add a topic to your watch list. Click on the term to see all articles on a topic.
info By clicking on the icon you can add the keyword to your topics.
info
By clicking on the icon you open your “my topics” page. They have of 15 keywords saved and would have to remove keywords.
info By clicking on the icon you can remove the keyword from your topics.
Add the topic to your topics.
1699049899
#United #tragedy #class #duel
