Anyone who places a title bet on the Steinbach Black Wings with the ICE Hockey League’s name sponsor, win2day, will receive 22 times their stake if they win. This means that the Linz team, who started the season with a painful 0:5 (0:2, 0:2, 0:1) defeat in the Palaonda in Bozen, are only number eight in the hit list – behind the reigning champion Red Bull Salzburg (2.8:1), “runner-up” KAC (4.5:1), Bozen (6:1), Fehervar (11:1), Villach (13:1), Graz (13:1) and the Vienna Capitals (15:1). On paper, the biggest outsiders are Asiago and the Pioneers Vorarlberg (70:1 each).
Such predictions are nothing but smoke and mirrors for the Upper Austrians, even if they took the “red lantern” of the bottom team with them on the nightly journey home. But does that mean white after the first of 48 matches in the regular season? Nothing at all. “It’s up to us to show what we can do. The fire is burning, I’m optimistic,” said Black Wings captain Brian Lebler, for whom Linz has been home since the second championship season in the club’s history – that was 2011/12. With one exception. In 2015/16, the now 36-year-old played for Ingolstadt in the DEL.
Photo gallery: Black Wings lost 0:5 at the start of the season
(Photo: HCB / Vanna Antonello) Bild 1/32
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In his 682 league matches in the ICE, Lebler scored no fewer than 371 goals and provided 276 assists. He was unable to score a 372nd goal in South Tyrol because the Black Wings lacked what Bozen had: merciless efficiency. The bottom line was 19:19 shots, so it was an open game for long stretches, in which the Italian serial champions made everything clear with a double strike within 120 seconds to make it 4:0 at the end of the second period (38th, 40th). A little later, Linz goalie Rasmus Tirronen left the ice in frustration (46th), Thomas Hö-neckl came on and kept his goal clean. At least.
Lebler is not one to get discouraged. “Our goal is to do better than last season, maybe even reach the finals,” emphasized the Klagenfurt native.
In 2023/24, the Black Wings lost 4-1 in the play-off quarter-finals to the club that ultimately became an insurmountable hurdle for everyone: Salzburg.
The “Red Bulls” are not invincible this year. They lost the opening thriller at KAC 3:4 after a penalty shootout. The newly rich Graz team won 2:1 in Vienna.
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