The in-form Daniel Mantenuto (r.) and the Foxes have to play against Innsbruck. © VANNA ANTONELLO

HCB invites you to the Tyrolean duel: “Know Innsbruck’s strengths”

On Friday it's all about a lot of prestige in the Bozner Sparkasse Arena, important points in the fight against the grain and the continuation of an impressive series. HCB Südtirol hosts HC Innsbruck.

23 November 2023

From: pm/fop

HC Bozen, unbeaten for eight rounds, is still the hottest team in the ICE Hockey League, even if the white-reds have had a rather irregular rhythm of play recently.

Before the international break, the Foxes won seven games in a row. The momentum was then carried over the break into the encounter against Villach, in which the HCB celebrated an overtime victory. After that, the runner-up was again free of play for another week. “The break was good for us. “So we were able to fine-tune our game system in training,” says HCB striker Pascal Brunner, who goes into detail about the opponent from Innsbruck in the following video.

The people of Innsbruck have been significantly more challenged than Bolzano in the past few days. The Sharks were eliminated after overtime in the round of 16 of the Champions Hockey League against the Finnish top team Lukko Rauma on Thursday after a great fight. The derby becomes even more explosive due to the table situation. Bolzano and Innsbruck are just behind the top six with the same number of points and are both determined to close this four-point gap as quickly as possible.

Tricky task for the wolves

HC Pustertal only has one note on the schedule this weekend, but it's a tough one. The wolves have to play in Klagenfurt on Friday at 19.15 p.m.

The KAC recently celebrated an 8-1 win over EC Red Bull Salzburg. This was the Red Jackets' biggest win since the 7-0 win in the 2021 pre-playoff against Bozen. With the blow-out win last Sunday, the Klagenfurt team managed to reach the top of the table. The top trio (places one to three have the same number of points) is only two points ahead of the KAC.

Dante Hannoun and CO. have to deal with the red jackets.

The Pusterers, for their part, were only recently able to stop their free fall in the table. After six defeats in seven games The Wolves managed to break free against Villach. In the table they remain in the playoff zone. The Wolves won the first meeting between HCP and KAC in Bruneck 5-3. In the Heidi-Horten-Arena, the Klagenfurt team are a force and scored 26 out of 30 possible points this season.

The next ICE games:

Friday
Klagenfurter AC – HC Pustertal (19.15:XNUMX p.m.)
RB Salzburg – Olimpija Ljubljana
Villacher SV – Vienna Capitals
Black Wings Linz – Pioneers Vorarlberg
Graz 99ers – Fehervar AV
HC Bozen – HC Innsbruck (19.45 p.m.)

Sunday
HC Bozen – Vorarlberg (16 p.m.)
Fehervar AV – Black Wings Linz
Vienna Capitals – Graz 99ers (17.30 p.m.)
Asiago Hockey – RB Salzburg
HC Innsbruck – Villacher SV
Olimpija Ljubljana – Klagenfurter AC (18 p.m.)