The Broncos eluded the Merano team time and again. © BK Photo

Unbeatable in South Tyrol: The Sterzing Derby Kings!

The Wipptal Broncos are currently clearly South Tyrol's best team in the Alps Hockey League. They impressively underscored this status in Merano. Val Gardena and Renon also celebrated on Thursday evening.

02 October 2025

From the MeranArena

An opening victory in Neumarkt, an overtime win against the Rittner Buam and now a crystal clear 4:0 in Merano – wipptal cements its dominance in the league. At least from South Tyrol's perspective. The wildly galloping Broncos are now in second place in the table, just behind surprise team Sisak.

In Merano, the Sterzingers did exactly what Sterzingers usually do: counterattack. And they did it to perfection. With their rolling attacks at top speed, they exposed all of the weaknesses of the HC Meran The spa town team could certainly use more cleverness and experience in their defense. Consider that HCM only has three defenders older than 21: Philipp Beber (30), Nick Rein (28), and Brayden Sherbinin (32).

Groh holds everything, Sproviero hits everything

The Merano team's appearance on loan from Bolzano didn't help the team that evening. On the contrary, he indirectly initiated Sterzing's 1-0 lead by failing to control the puck on the power play. Bryson Cianfrone snatched it away from him and initiated a quick counterattack, which Franco Sproviero finished off. In the middle period, Connor Sanvido ran unhindered along the boards on the power play. Andreas Bernard was able to parry his shot, but Fabian Gschliesser's reload was unable to.

Even with Sterzing's third goal, Merano looked anything but good at the back. David Trivellato lost the puck during the break, and Sproviero accepted the gift and scored his own brace. The new signing from overseas had already scored twice against Ritten. Luciano Zandegiacomo finally finished the 4-0 victory, and Dominik Groh then kept the clean sheet. Thus, the next derby victory was secured. Now the Wipptal team only needs one more South Tyrolean opponent to win the game: Next Thursday, Val Gardena will try to break the streak.

You can rely on Val Gardena’s Rindone

The HC Gherdëina offered a strong performance this Thursday, winning 3-1. The Furies created numerous opportunities against the previously undefeated champions. Brady capitalized on one of these opportunities after a Zeller substitution error to make it 1-0. Longtime ICE star Sacha Guimond then increased the lead to 2-0 with a slap shot on the power play, his first goal for the HCG.

Then, 21-year-old Matthias Rindone led the Val Gardena team to victory with another strong performance. He only had to concede a goal when the score was 1-2, but Simon Pitschieler sealed the victory with an empty-net goal.

Only Unterland stands out

In Klobenstein the situation for the Rittner Buam After the first period, the game looked extremely bleak. However, the boys turned a 0-3 deficit against the Red Bull Hockey Juniors into a 4-3 victory, securing a very important home win and making significant gains in the standings. Diego Cuglietta emerged as the celebrated match winner. First, he beat an opponent to equalize, then successfully completed a solo breakaway to secure his team's comeback victory.

Ritten's winning goal scorer, Diego Cuglietta, celebrated twice. © Max Pattis

With the Underland Cavaliers A fourth South Tyrolean team was in action on home ice on Thursday. They suffered a decisive 2-4 defeat to Cortina – despite the home side leading 1-0 until the 27th minute. But then Cortina equalized Gabriel Galassiti's goal and pulled ahead 4-1 in the middle period.

The Cavs did manage to pull back to 2-4 in the final period thanks to a goal from Villi Pisetta, but it was too late to rally. They suffered their third defeat in four games, and the optimism they felt after their victory on the Ritten ice has dissipated for the time being.

Thursday's results:

HC Meran – Wipptal Broncos 0:4
Goals: 0:1 Sproviero (6.19), 0:2 Gschliesser (24.05), 0:3 Sproviero (33.34), 0:4 Zandegiacomo (44.39)
Audience: 473

HC Gherdëina – EK Zell am See 3:1
Goals: 1:0 Brady (7.09), 2:0 Guimond (28.33), 2:1 Coffman (57.54), 3:1 Pitschieler (59.59)
Audience: 311

Rittner Buam – RB Juniors 4:3
Goals: 0:1 Eliseev (6.26), 0:2 Eliseev (7.47), 0:3 Krainer (19.28), 1:3 Crespi (25.07), 2:3 Kostner (26.13), 3:3 Cuglietta (38.06), 4:3 Cuglietta (42.08)
Audience: 226

Unterland Cavaliers – SG Cortina 2:4
Goals: 1:0 Galassiti (21.13), 1:1 Lacedelli (26.30), 1:2 Kalajanniska (28.21), 1:3 Chris Pietroniro (33.04), 1:4 Barnabò (39.12), 2:4 Villi Pisetta (54.32)
Audience: 250

KHL Sisak – HDD Jesenice 4:1
Goals: 1:0 Malenica (13.33), 2:0 Marinkovic (50.39), 2:1 Oblak (53.05), 3:1 Idzan (54.09), 4:1 Larionovs (59.42)
Audience: 935