Jakob Fuchs (front) led Meran to victory. © BK Photo

Upside-down ice hockey world in Merano

The intermediate round of the Alps Hockey League started on Tuesday evening. HC Meran celebrated an extremely important victory for morale in the South Tyrolean derby against the Wipptal Broncos.

February 11rd 2025

From: dl

Both the HC Meran as well as the Wipptal Broncos missed direct playoff qualification in the regular season. Both teams are fighting in Qualification Round A for the last remaining tickets for the fifth season. In the direct duel, HC Meran beat the Broncos at home 3:1.

In the first half, it looked as if the last few weeks had left their mark. The guests from Wipptal, who had almost qualified directly for the playoffs after six wins in a row, got off to a flying start and took the lead after seven minutes through Thomas Galimberti. Sterzing then continued to press high and did not allow the home team to get a chance. Merano seemed increasingly unsettled in their own arena. The five defeats in a row were clearly visible to the Borgatello team for a long time.

Rudy Rigoni played magic in the Merano goal. © BK Photo

Only Rudy Rigoni kept Meran in the game for long. The equalizer came almost out of nowhere towards the end of the second period when Jakob Fuchs directed a blueliner from Patrick Madsen into the goal. In the final period, Massimo Pietroniro put Meran in front with a wonderful goal. In the final phase, the Broncos increasingly lost their nerve and received too many penalties. Pietroniro said thank you and sealed the deal, although the shot statistics on goal that evening (22:38) were actually clearly in favor of the guests.

Val Gardena and Ritten win

The team also had a perfect start in the Qualification Round A. HC Val Gardena who beat the Red Bull Juniors 6-3. The Furies dominated the game against the young bulls from Salzburg from the start. In front of 1.000 spectators in Pranives, Yuri Cristellon opened the scoring before the home team went into the first break with a 2-1 lead.

HC Gröden beat the young bulls from Salzburg. © matthaeus kostner

Captain Simon Pitschieler then scored right at the start of the middle third after a solo effort into the top corner to make it 3-1. After the score was 4-2, Davide Schiavone sealed the deal with a brace. Emil Oksanen also played well with a goal and an assist.

11 goals and overtime in the first game of the Master Round: The Rittner Buam SkyAlps started with a thriller win. After a thrilling match, the blue-reds celebrated a 6:5 victory in overtime against the Kitzbühel Eagles. Because the Rittner Buam SkyAlps are still short of personnel (Cuglietta, Lang and Prast were missing), coach Jamie Russell called up the two youngsters Paul Innerhofer and Max Oberrauch, who normally play for Ritten's farm team Kaltern in the IHL and the joint U19 team.

Ritten won spectacularly in overtime. © Max Pattis

A deflection by Manuel Öhler after Hjorth's shot equalized the score at 30:5 with 5 seconds to go and saved Ritten from overtime. Things got strange in overtime, as Kostner scored 6:5 for the boys. The referees initially awarded the goal, but took it back after a lengthy discussion due to a substitution error. Instead, it counted a little over a minute later, when Hjorth scored the final score of 6:5 with a long-range shot during the power play.

Cavaliers wake up too late

The Underland Cavaliers are on a farewell tour in the AlpsHL. The Crusaders had to admit defeat in the Qualification Round B against EC Bregenzerwald with 4:5. The South Tyroleans were temporarily behind with 0:4 because they had missed the start of the middle third. At the end it was exciting again, but the Unterlandler's resistance came too late.

AlpsHL: Tuesday's games

Master round
Zeller Eisbären – Jesenice 4:3 nV
0:1 Koblar (06.53), 0:2 Sillapaa (35.29), 1:2 Widen (49.32), 2:2 Rappold (51.29), 3:2 McLeod (58.54), 3:3 Slivnik (59.19), 4:3 Jennes (64.53)
Spectators: 1.611

Rittner Buam – Adler Kitzbühel 6:5 nV
1:0 Kostner (13.13), 1:1 Schutz (14.06), 2:1 Hjorth (20.19), 3:1 Spinell (22.55), 3:2 Schmid (41.09), 4:2 Öhler (45.19), 4:3 Wieltschnig (53.55), 4:4 Maxs (55.52), 4:5 Podlipnik (56.23), 5:5 Öhler (59.27), 6:5 Hjorth (63.43)




Qualification Round A
HC Meran – Wipptal Broncos 3:1
0:1 Galimberti (07.00), 1:1 Fuchs (37.37), 2:1 Massimo Pietroniro (46.50), 3:1 Massimo Pietroniro (59.16)
Audience: 412

HC Gröden – Red Bull Juniors 6:3
1:0 Cristellon (09.07), 2:0 Oskanaen (12.35), 2:1 Wurzer (15.55), 3:1 Pitschieler (20.57), 3:2 Kessler (26.16), 4:2 Deluca (36.21), 5:2 Schiavone (37.03), 6:2 Schiavone (51.56), 6:3 Heimel (57.41)
Audience: 1.012




Qualification Round B
EC Bregenzerwald – Unterland Cavaliers 5:4
1:0 Lebeda (04.49), 2:0 König (22.08), 3:0 Pöschmann (22.34), 4:0 Metzler (25.10), 4:1 Kaufmann (28.06), 5:1 Lipsbergs (28.21), 5:2 Samitis (38.24), 5:3 Brighenti (45.35), 5:4 Murnieks (57.57)
Audience: 703

KHL Sisak – HK Celje 4:5
0:1 Panasenko (06.00), 1:1 Dostalek (06.25), 1:2 Tsarkovskyi (23.26), 1:3 Mintautiskis (24.25), 2:3 Briere (27.43), 2:4 Mintautiskis (30.40), 3:4 Idzan (41.53), 3:5 Tsarkovskyi (45.32), 4:5 Kasperek (47.32)
Audience: 1.362